Finding the Phoenix
by ntertanedangel
Summary: Marauder-era James/Lily fic. The story of James Potter's life from age 16 until his death. Featuring everything we know about James from canon, plus a few of my own surprises. Now complete.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

The dark figure ran bent over as if wishing to avoid detection towards the violently thrashing tree. The boy, who looked to be about fifteen, looked over his shoulder, pushing back his long limp hair as he did so, thus profiling his overlarge nose, then picked up a stick from the ground and began circling the tree, scanning the base of its trunk. He seemed to find what he was looking for, thrust his stick forwards, and disappeared behind the suddenly still curtain of leaves.

Disembodied laughter, which had been drifting towards the same tree, was suddenly cut off. "Oh, shit" came a voice, and then another teenage boy, this one with messy black hair and glasses, appeared out of nowhere and began sprinting at the tree. "James! Wait! Oh, bloody hell" shouted a new voice and two more boys materialized and followed their friend, the taller of the two shoving a silvery cloth into his pocket as he ran. They reached the tree just as James too had disappeared behind the leafy curtain. The tall boy glanced at his companion, took a deep breath, and dived at a hole in the base of the tree, becoming much shorter, blacker, and furrier as he did so. The shorter, rounder boy appeared to shrink, and with a flick of his long, bald tail, he too scrambled down the hole.

Inside the tunnel beneath the tree, James ran doubled up, cursing the low ceiling which prevented him from transforming lest he become even more cramped than he currently was. He rounded the final familiar corner just in time to see the first boy opening a door at the end of the tunnel. The boy glanced inside and sprang back in alarm, then turned at the sound of James' labored breathing. Before he could screech more than, "Potter! You…" he had been hit by a jet of red light and crumpled to the floor. James launched himself over the boy's body to slam the door shut, and heard a roar of rage from the other side. "_Co…Coloportus!_" he gasped, pointing a wand at the door, and with a squelching sound it was sealed shut.

He was kneeling over the boy's body muttering and swearing under his breath as a large black dog and a rat rounded the corner and came near to sniff at the boy's clothing. The dog appeared not to have enjoyed what he smelled and jumped back, its tail between its legs. "Oh, ha ha Sirius," said James, apparently not amused. "How the _hell_ did he know? Never mind, let's just get him back to the castle," and with a wave of his wand, the boy began to float. James steered the boy back down the tunnel and all four began moving away from the howls and screeches of pain and anger now issuing from behind the door.

* * *

James, his two friends, and the boy with the large nose were sitting in a beautiful circular room facing an old man across his desk who was looking uncharacteristically severe. After a long silence, the old man cleared his throat. "Severus." The boy with the large nose looked up and met the man's eyes. "I believe I have a clear idea as to what happened tonight, but I am still at a loss as to why. How did you gain knowledge of that particular tunnel, and what possessed you to follow it? And in the middle of the night no less?"

Severus shifted uncomfortably in his chair and was unable to keep the anger out of his voice as he murmured, "Sirius said if I did I would find out where Remus goes every month." The old man's piercing gaze shifted sharply from Severus to the tall boy on James' right.

"I see. Severus, will you wait outside please." Despite the polite phrasing, it was quite clear that this was not a request, and Severus cast a glance of loathing in Sirius' direction before nodding and leaving the room.

The three boys all spoke at the same time. "Professor Dumbledore, sir…" "What is he…?" "Will Remus…?" but Dumbledore held up his hands for silence and the boys obliged. "I take it the three of you have known of Remus' disappearances for a while now?" The boys nodded in unison and Dumbledore cast a critical eye over them before continuing. "I do not know what you boys thought you could do for Remus at this time, and I do not want to. But surely you must realize how dangerous it is to be near him during his transformations. Especially," he focused again upon Sirius, "if one is unaware of what they will be facing. If you did indeed inform Mr. Snape of the tunnel, as I can see from your face that you did, that may as well constitute involuntary manslaughter, no matter how exceedingly foolish it was of Mr. Snape to follow your suggestion." The color drained from Sirius' face, and he opened his mouth to speak but seemed unable to form words. "Furthermore," continued Dumbledore, "had such a murder indeed occurred, the Ministry would want to be sure that it would not happen again, and would hand Remus over to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures for execution." Now all three boys were pale, and Sirius was caught in the beam of three different sets of angry stares. Dumbledore sighed and turned away. "James and Peter, please go back to your dormitory while I talk to Mr. Black here. Please do not talk of this incident to anybody until I can assess how much damage has been done."

James stood up, unaware of whether or not Peter was following, and opened the door to find Severus leaning against the wall outside the door, his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. They stared at each other for a few seconds before James hissed slowly, "Snivellus, you bastard," and shouldered his way past him down the stairs, Peter following timidly behind.

* * *

James was still sitting up in bed when Sirius came back to the dormitory an hour later. Sirius acknowledged his friend with a nod, then walked over and sat on his own bed facing James. The silence solidified between them for an almost unbearable amount of time before Sirius said in cracked voice, "Here's your cloak back," holding out a piece of silvery cloth as he did so. James took it and fingered it quietly.

"Why'd you do it?" he whispered.

"Dammit, Prongs, I don't need another lecture." Sirius swung his legs into bed and stared determinedly at the canopy of his bed. "I've just been given a detention every night for the rest of term, and that's on top of the ones I already got for hexing that toilet on the third floor."

James looked up. "I don't want to lecture you, Sirius, but you're like my brother, and I just can't see family members leaving something like this hanging. I know you would never hurt Remus intentionally, but I have to know what you meant to happen to Snape."

Sirius was quiet for a moment, and when his reply came it was hoarse. "You should have heard what Snivellus was saying about Moony yesterday in Charms. You would have cursed him into jelly if you had heard. I wanted to shut him up. I just wanted to scare him, to embarrass him, and to stop him trying to spy us out. It never occurred to me that he might die...that Remus would…" He turned his head to wipe his eyes, as if afraid to let James see him cry.

James sighed. "Padfoot, why did we spend three years studying to become animagi? Because we know that werewolves kill humans. Of course _Remus _wouldn't kill Snape, but Remus isn't Remus when he's in that shack, and he's not Moony either… he's something else."

Sirius ran his fingers through his hair and met his friend's eyes. "I know. I'm sorry, and you know how much I hate saying that." James held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. Sirius managed a weak smile then yelled at Peter who was sprawled out on the bed two down from James', "Oi! Wormy! You can stop faking sleeping now." Peter blinked and looked up, grinned sheepishly and rolled over.

* * *

James was woken the next morning by a pillow thrown at his head and Sirius' distinctive hiss: "He's back!" James sat up and fumbled for his glasses. When he finally located them and put them on, he witnessed Sirius launching out of bed to give a massive bear hug to Remus, who was standing with the aid of crutches in the doorway, looking tired and rather alarmed to be greeted such. Sirius was practically shouting in Remus' ear: "Oh Merlin, Moony, I am so sorry! I'm an idiot and if you never want to talk to me again I'd completely understand. I should be made to live as a Muggle, or worse, to live with my mum!" James jumped up grinning to rescue Remus, who was now looking utterly terrified.

"Let him breathe, Sirius. Good to see you mate… Dumbledore told you what happened?"

Remus nodded and hobbled over to his bed and sat down looking exhausted and gingerly feeling the various cuts on his arms. "Yeah. Thanks for being there, James." Sirius made a strangled noise and Remus glanced up at him. "Don't worry about it, Padfoot. Madam Pomphrey said with potions I'd be okay in a few days, and Snape is fine, so no harm done. Just… just… well, you know. I'm really tired." He lay down and gave them a thin-lipped smile. "See you on the other side."

Sirius let out a long breath, looking profoundly relieved that his friend was not angry and still looking Remus over as if to assess the damage. James, however, grabbed Peter by the feet and dragged him out of bed despite his squawk of protest. "Come on, let's go to the common room and let Moony get his beauty sleep."

* * *

**A/N**- I hope you enjoyed the first chapter- there will be 15 in total. I know it's not the most exciting thing in the world right now, but it does get better and (I think) much more interesting. Mostly, this story is just my attempt to put everything we know about James into a coherent narrative, so this is going to be more of a character study than a super-complex plot… Just so you know what's coming.

It's all JKR's.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

James flopped down on a couch in the Gryffindor common room several weeks later next to a pretty girl with red hair who was poring over a massive textbook called _Arithmancy and Its Applications in Spell Creation_. She rolled her eyes, but other than that did nothing to acknowledge his sudden presence. James pretended to read over her shoulder, angling his mouth right next to her ear. He blew hard into it and she slapped him. Grinning impishly, he sat back and said rather louder than was necessary, "Hey, Evans. Whatcha doing?"

"I should think that was obvious, Potter. I am studying for my Arithmancy O.W.L., which takes place in half an hour. I'm rather surprised that you aren't doing the same," she said without looking up.

"Naw, it'll be no problem," he replied, waving a hand airily. "How do you think you did on Charms?"

She turned squarely in her seat to face him. "Potter, I'll make this simple. Go away. I'm trying to concentrate."

"Oooh, am I distracting you? Can't keep your mind off me while I'm around?" She slapped him again. "Come on, Lily, one date?" Slamming her book shut, she stalked away and up the stairs to the girl's dormitories. Just before her skirt whipped around the corner James yelled, "I see you didn't say no. Seven o' clock, then?"

"Sod off, Potter!" came the reply.

Sirius, who had been watching this exchange leaning against the wall, took Lily's newly vacated seat, pulled a pad of paper out of his pocket with a flourish, and added a tick mark to an already substantial tally. "Rejection number seventeen," he announced, and James, who had lost the grin he had worn earlier, cuffed him upside the head. Sirius smiled and put his feet up on the coffee table. "Prongs, mate. You are fighting a losing battle."

"All the more reason to fight harder, eh? Come on, we need to study for Arithmancy. That test is going to cream me."

* * *

The Arithmancy O.W.L. exam was indeed difficult, but James felt that his worry had been misplaced. He even finished early enough to make several attempts at the bonus question: "Using the principles of Arithmancy, create your own original spell theory." He sketched out one spell to clean out earwax from the ear, one to make a dense fog follow someone around wherever they go, and was just starting on one charm to make a person's voice sound as if they were on helium when time was called. He smirked and inwardly vowed to perfect his ideas to use on Snivellus.

Next exam was in Potions, where James again felt confident of a pass, though (he thought with a stab of jealousy) probably not as high a score as Evans or Snape, who were tops at every Potions class. Afterwards the four dorm mates compared impressions, and Sirius and Remus both felt similarly confident, while Peter declined comment, looking fairly green. The boys ran up to their dormitories for a quick cram session for their Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L., which was to be the last of a grueling week's worth of exams.

They sat at individual desks in the Great Hall for their written test, and all was quiet but for a fly buzzing against a high window and the scratching of quills. James had trouble stifling his laughter as a large percentage of the questions drew their answers, not from the classroom, but from his exploits with his friends, and bizarre episodes were repeatedly dragged to the forefront of his mind. Again, he finished early, and from a quick glance behind him, saw that Sirius had also finished and, by the smirk on his face, was also reliving various Marauder escapades. When time was called, he jumped up, congregated with his three roommates, and together they made their way out into the sunlit grounds to enjoy their newfound freedom from studying. Even as he laughed at Remus's dry humor, he couldn't help watching Lily Evans out of the corner of his eyes, or noting that she and Mary MacDonald were heading towards the lake. As casually as he could, he wandered over in the same direction, stopping under a tree at the lake's edge.

With a quick glance to make sure that he was clearly visible from where the redhead was sitting cooling her feet in the water, he pulled a Snitch from his pocket and let it fly as much as two feet away before snatching it back. Sirius looked on with faint amusement, Remus ignored him entirely, engrossed in a Transfiguration book, but Peter seemed in awe of James and his reflexes. After a while, James had to admit that the fun was starting to wear off, but Lily hadn't looked around yet, and Peter's enthusiasm was hilarious in a pathetic sort of way. Once he started applauding, however, Sirius snorted his disgust. "Put that away, will you, before Wormtail wets himself."

James grinned. "If it bothers you." But without the distraction of the Snitch, the boys just sat there with nothing to do. As usual, it was Sirius' attention span that broke earliest.

"I'm _bored_. Wish it was the full moon."

"You might," came Remus' voice darkly from behind his book, but at that moment Sirius stiffened, a mischievous smirk curling his mouth. James, noticing the movement, looked up at his friend, then followed his gaze. "Excellent. Snivellus."

James broke into an identical smirk and stood up, drawing his wand as he did so. Snape was about a dozen yards away, alone, and walking back up to the castle, his dark greasy hair almost completely hiding his beak-nosed profile. Sirius and James strolled towards him casually. "Hey there, Snivellus!"

Snape wheeled and instantly James felt something slash across his cheek. He reacted automatically and disarmed Snape, then just for good measure, thought _levicorpus_, and with a flash, Snape was hanging upside down in midair, his robes falling over his face.

"How'd the exam go, Snivelly?"

"I was watching him," Sirius barked. "His nose was so close to the paper they won't be able to read it through all the grease marks."

Snape growled out a string of hexes and swear words, both of which were completely ineffectual. James was advancing on him when a shout made him wheel around.

"Leave him ALONE!" Lily had left the water and was glaring at James with intense dislike. James couldn't help but feel buoyed to see her there, despite the look on her face.

"Hey, Evans."

"James Potter, let him down now! What's he ever done to you?"

James knew the answer to that question perfectly well, but he wasn't about to tell Lily, especially not with the crowd of students around who had gathered to watch the fun. Well, maybe not the whole answer.

"It's more the fact that he _exists_ if you know what I mean." Lily's fury increased, and James jumped on his chance, no matter how slim he knew it to be. "I'll let him down if you go out with me."

Her eyes flashed. "I wouldn't go out with you if it were a choice between you and the giant squid. Now _let him down_."

With a deep sigh, James turned back to Snape and with a flick of his wand Snape was crumpled in a heap of black robes on the floor. "You're lucky Evans was here for you this time."

Snape spat a mouthful of hair out of his mouth and glared at James and Sirius with hatred to match the redhead's. "I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her."

Fury rose up in James' stomach, but Lily just blinked. "Fine. I won't bother next time."

"Apologize to Evans!" James roared.

"No! I don't want _you_ to make him apologize! You're as bad as he is!" Snape's head jerked up at this remark, but James did not see.

"What?! I'd never call you a…" He couldn't bring himself to say the word "Mudblood." Not in front of her. "…a you-know-what!"

And then she was in his face, screaming out his arrogance for the whole school to hear; James was afraid she was about to attack him, but she just turned on her heel and stormed away. He called out to her, but she didn't respond, so he turned back around and vented his frustration back onto Snape: with a flash he was back in the air. His heart was not in it, however, and he quickly stalked off back up to the castle, leaving it to someone else to let Snape down again.

* * *

The last few days before the summer vacation were not fun for James. Not only did he have to deal with Sirius' taunting about "number eighteen" (which had stopped being funny at number twelve) and Remus' quiet disapproval of his behavior, but Lily refused to be in the same room with him, which meant that she spent a lot of time out of the Gryffindor common room. Interestingly, her anger did not seem to be solely directed at James, although he felt his fair share. She was continually in a bad temper and seemed to be spending more time than usual with Mary. All in all, James was glad of the chance to let everyone cool off over the summer.

* * *

**A/N**- Pretty familiar territory, but it had to be in here somewhere. I branch out a lot more in the next chapter. This (obviously) borrows shamelessly from the "Snape's Worst Memory" chapter in OotP (ch 28, pgs 624-650 US edition), but I purposely didn't follow it word for word.

It's all JKR's


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

He should have known better. As soon as he stepped through the barrier at King's Cross onto Platform 9 ¾ he saw Lily give him a glare of pure ice and turn away. James rolled his eyes and scanned the crowd for a Marauder. He spotted Peter being hugged by his mother and ran off to greet him, leaving his own mother behind with his school trunk.

"Hey, Wormy! How was your summer?" He needn't have asked; he had seen Peter only two weeks ago, as that had been the full moon, but neither of their parents had known that and he wasn't about to spill the beans just yet.

Peter grinned. "Eh, no complaints. And yourself?"

"I set a wicked awesome booby trap for my dad. He was covered in slime, and he didn't even ground me- he just said it was a cool piece of magic." James ignored the disapproving glare he was receiving from Peter's mother. Apparently, that was the only look he was fit to receive from most women these days. The two soon found Remus and Sirius, and after hugging their respective parents goodbye, they got on the train. James' mother pulled him aside first, however, and looked him over sternly, trying and failing to flatten his hair.

"You going to behave yourself this term?"

"Oh, mum, I always do!" She allowed herself a reluctant grin; he winked at her and jumped on the train. James was feeling especially close to his mother at the moment- they had had a nice long conversation just a few days ago like they hadn't had in years. His dad had been gone for business, and he had been helping his mum prepare dinner when she turned to him and gave him a quick hug.

"What was that for?" he had asked.

She had looked a little sad as she answered. "Because you're growing up so fast. I have to hug you now while you still have to put up with me. I can't even call you 'Jimmy' anymore, mister 'James Potter, if you please.'"

James had blushed and mumbled, "You can call me Jimmy if you want. Just don't let Sirius hear."

She had laughed and hugged him again. "So I hear you and Sirius are still quite the little troublemakers. There's hardly a week goes by when I don't get an owl about some trouble you two are causing. Bulbadox powder, huh? And stinkbombs?" He had looked apprehensive, but she smiled. "Don't worry; I'm not going to yell at you. What's life without a little fun? And speaking about fun, what about girls? Anyone special?"

James had blushed even deeper this time.

"Aaah, well, I know you Jimmy. You'll have been trying to impress her with some crazy stunt. Girls like to be impressed, but the things guys think will impress them rarely do. Just be a gentleman like I know you're capable of and don't push it."

He had looked up at his mother in gratitude. He needed all the advice he could get with this particular girl. The conversation had then moved on to school, and they spent a long time discussing his impressive O.W.L. scores that had just arrived.

James was called back to earth from these memories by Sirius announcing that he had managed to filch a bottle of firewhiskey from his dad, and it was currently in his trunk waiting to be shared for a "welcome back to school" party.

* * *

First lesson of the new term was Potions. Now that they were on to N.E.W.T. level, there were much fewer students in the class. This would be the first time for James to be in a class without Sirius or Peter- Peter had not received a high enough grade to move on to N.E.W.T., and Sirius insisted that Potions was too easy for him and he wanted a challenge. Along with James and Remus there were three Ravenclaws, two Hufflepuffs, and of course, Evans and Snape. Lily got there just as the bell was about to ring, so the rest of the class was already there. There was an open seat next to Remus, and another next to Snape, but Lily stood undecided in the doorway, unsure of where to sit. Finally, she chose to sit alone in one of the extra desks at the back. James was surprised; as long as he could remember, Lily and Severus had sat together during Potions. They even shared the same textbook, and were often seen snatching it back and forth writing notes in the margins. James had assumed this was their way of passing notes, and wondered why they didn't just talk to each other as they were sitting so close, but he had stolen the book in the middle of last year to make sure, and all that was there were some annotations to the instructions and some made-up spells. Some of the spells were very interesting, and he had copied some of them down before returning the book; that was where he had learned _levicorpus_. But now Lily was very resolutely _not_ sitting next to Snape. James saw this as a good omen.

* * *

"James, mate, I think we need to talk." Sirius was looking uncharacteristically grave.

"Who died?"

"Shut up, you git." James knew better than to take the insult seriously. "It's about… you're not going to like this, but it's about Lily."

James stiffened. "What about her?"

"I think you need to stop."

"What?"

"You need to stop going after her. I mean, it's been _years_. The joke's up. Time to move on to greener pastures."

James had stood up without realizing it. "Please tell me we're not having this conversation."

"Look," said Sirius, standing up as well, "I'm just saying this because I care about you. I think we know by now that she's not going to go for you, and I don't want you missing out on other girls because you're blind to all but one."

"Sirius, I know what I want in a girl, all right? That's it. I'm not setting some impossibly high standard or anything; I'm not going after a supermodel. There's a flesh-and-blood girl in the dormitory next door who has everything I've ever dreamed of in a girl, and I'm not going to give that up without a fight. This isn't a game."

"Isn't it?" asked Sirius quietly, and James paused with his mouth open. Sirius shook his head. "Don't you remember? We used to try and use the Invisibility Cloak to look up her skirt, and we used to charm her hair into knots just to make her slap you. Those were just games, and you know it."

James did know it, and it pulled him up short. He had picked on her because that's what boys did, but somehow it had never stopped. But it wasn't a game to him now, and he wondered when the switch had happened. _Is this what it looks like?_ he wondered, _Like a little boy's hobby, a flippant show of egoism? _

"Sirius, I really like her," he said in a much quieter voice than he had been using. "I don't know how it happened, but please, don't make me give up the chance. Maybe Lily is everything I've ever dreamed of because she's the only one I've ever given myself a chance to dream about, but don't you see? It's still my dream."

Sirius smiled somewhat reluctantly. "It's your love life I suppose. Plus, I have to admit, I would have hated giving up the entertainment of watching you ask her out."

* * *

**A/N-** It's all JKR's


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

As soon as James saw the barn owl, he knew something was wrong. His dad never sent him mail, so what was his owl doing in the Great Hall? The bird landed squarely on top of James' eggs, and he pulled the letter off its leg. Inside was a letter written in a very shaky hand.

_James,_

_I am very sorry to have to tell you that your mother has died. She was cleaning out the attic and her scouring charm backfired. The funeral is on Sunday. I will be in touch._

_-Dad_

* * *

James stood staring down at his mother's coffin in the square hole feeling absolutely nothing, and this scared him. Shouldn't he be sobbing his heart out like his grandmother was across the way, or at least feeling a stab of pain, like his father seemed to be feeling next to him? Even Sirius, Remus, and Peter, who were scattered around the grave, seemed to be in more pain than he. But no, there was just nothing. Nothing but a wooden box where his mum used to be. He had taken several days off school, and his friends had been allowed to attend the funeral, but they would be taking a portkey back soon, and he would be staying at home for a few more days. He did not like this arrangement; he didn't want to fall behind in school and couldn't see what being at home would do to help him, but he had thought it best not to argue.

One moment James seemed to be in a graveyard blinking against the wind, and the next he was in the kitchen blinking at a mug in his hands, being not entirely sure how he got there. But his father was sitting across the table from him taking a drink from a similar mug, and James imitated him. He received a shock: he had been expecting hot chocolate or cider, but what was in his mug was unmistakably firewhiskey. He was almost of age now, but it was still a little weird to be given liquor by your dad. They sat and drank in silence, and when James' mug was empty, his father refilled it for him.

It was his dad who issued the first sob. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, but the tears were coming too fast, and he was soon holding his head in his hands holding nothing back. James began blinking furiously and found to his surprise that he was crying as well. He moved his chair around the table next to his dad's and squeezed his shoulders.

"Remember that time she charmed the whole house orange just for the fun of it?" he choked out. His father nodded and sat up. "Or when you bought her some fake flowers and she spent months watering them, thinking they were just well-preserved?" His father managed a small laugh this time.

"I told you not to tell her. Our little conspiracy."

"And when you said I couldn't have a dog, so she charmed one of my stuffed animals to act like one, and it chewed up the back of the sofa?"

Mr. Potter turned and gave his son a bear hug. "James, you are the best thing we ever did."

James managed an embarrassed smile and took his father's mug. "Come on. More firewhiskey."

He had never been drunk before. He had experimented with the things Sirius managed to sneak into the dorm, but he knew he would get caught if he went too far. Doing it with his dad, though, was different from doing it with Sirius or the other guys, just like playing Quidditch with his dad as a kid was different from being on the House team. It was less giddy, perhaps, less fooling around, but somehow he was glad that his first drunken experience was in his kitchen, with his father, enjoying his mother's memory.

* * *

There had been a late-running Quidditch practice the night after the full moon, and a full night's worth of homework on the next, and James was exhausted. Quidditch practices were really eating into his study time, and it was quite a new and draining experience for him to actually have to study, so with a groan, he opted to skip his lunch and go to the library to try and catch up on homework. He was so tired that he could barely keep track of where he was walking, and knocked straight into someone right outside the library.

"Oh, sorry," he mumbled, then realized it was Snape. The books he had been carrying had fallen out of his hands, but James had barely even registered that fact before he was staring down Snape's wand, which was pointed in his face. Snape looked livid.

"I've had enough of your crap, Potter."

"Whoa, Snivellus, calm down. I didn't mean to hit you. I'm sorry, all right?" He tried to push past Snape, but was cut off.

"Always an accident, is it? I'm sick and tired of Pretty-Boy Potter's little 'accidents' going unnoticed while I get strung upside down with my own spell." He glanced up and down the corridor, which was empty. "I think that in the interests of your education, you need to learn what it's like to have your own weapons used against you."

With a flash, James was hanging upside down by his ankle. He still had his wand on him though, and he had drawn it and called "_expelliarmus_" before Snape had time to react. Snape's wand went flying towards James' face, and he caught it before thinking _liberacorpus_ and letting himself fall to the floor. He stood up to face Snape, who looked like a wounded animal.

"Merlin, Snape! I can't decide if you're just crazy or if you have a death wish! Next time you try and hex someone, make sure they're not better than you at dueling." With that, he handed Snape back his wand and pushed past him to the library. Lily was just inside the doorway, and by the shocked look on her face, she had witnessed the whole exchange.

* * *

James was deliberately late to Potions so that everyone would be there before him. After a hurried apology to Professor Slughorn, he walked right past Remus and set his cauldron down next to Lily. She looked surprised, but didn't say anything, as Professor Slughorn was giving them their assignment for the day: Amortentia. Lily groaned. James said nothing but set about getting out the right ingredients and lighting a fire under his cauldron.

James worked easily, but Lily seemed flustered. She still managed to brew her usual perfect potion, but only after catching herself about to put in the wrong ingredient several times. James waited until the second half of class during a period where their potion was supposed to be simmering and they had nothing to do.

"So… what's going on with you and Snape?"

She was quiet and seemed to be debating how much to tell him. "Nothing," she said finally.

"Uh huh."

"We were friends, but we're not anymore."

"And that would be because….?"

"Because I gave up on him."

This was interesting. "Gave up as in you wanted something to happen that didn't, or…?"

"You know you're pushing it, don't you, Potter?" she said, brandishing a ladle at him, but she didn't look angry. James flashed her a mischievous grin, and she seemed to know that he wouldn't stop until he was satisfied with her answer. "We were friends since before Hogwarts, but he's changing into something that I'm not."

James glanced over at Snape, who was looking especially surly. "And has he given up on you?"

Lily's expression had become frozen. She was quiet for a while before shrugging and stirring her potion idly.

"He likes you, doesn't he?"

"I thought so for a while, but he has demonstrated otherwise." There was another short pause. "Speaking of what's up with Severus, what about you two?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well… you didn't hex him. You're normally itching to have a go at him, but he attacked you, and you just gave him back his wand. I don't get it."

James had asked himself the same question, and he thought he knew the answer. Snape had been his favorite target because he was jealous that Lily spent so much time with a greasy, bad-tempered Slytherin, but wouldn't give him the time of day when he would go out of his way to get her to like him. Now that the two weren't spending so much time together, some of the appeal was gone. And also (he admitted to himself shamefully), perhaps he had just grown up a bit. What he said aloud, however was, "I'm a man of mystery."

At that moment Professor Slughorn called out from the front of the room: "Your potions should be ready now. If you have done it correctly, the steam should be rising in spirals, and you should be able to smell the thing that attracts you most."

Both Lily's and James' potions had spiral steam issuing from it, and they leaned in to smell it at the same moment. James smelled just what he had expected. When he glanced over at Lily, however, her eyes were wide and she looked frightened.

* * *

**A/N- **In case you care, that story James tells about the fake flowers comes from something my grandfather did to my grandmother… a bit of my family folklore:-)

It's all JKR's


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"Hogsmeade trip next weekend," announced Sirius as he shoved aside a second-year so that he could sit next to James for breakfast in the Great Hall. "Poster just went up."

James shrugged noncommittally. They already went to Hogsmeade practically every weekend thanks to a very special map and a certain one-eyed statue, so the "official" trips were nothing to get excited about. Still, he supposed it would be nice to be able to visit with more people and to not have to dodge out of sight every time a teacher walked by. He needed to visit Zonko's anyways- he was running low on stinkbombs.

"I bet Amanda asks you to go with her- she's been eyeing you for a month, and her patience isn't exactly legendary."

James groaned. Amanda was the kind of giggling, shallow, hair-obsessed girls that James detested. "She knows I fancy Lily. Everyone knows I fancy Lily. I can't see her pushing herself on me like that."

Sirius snorted. "I can."

The truth was, James could too, but he was trying not to think about it.

Sirius turned out to be exactly right. James was walking to Herbology when a highly-manicured hand came out of nowhere and slammed him against a wall.

"Hey, Jamsie! How ya doing?!"

"Oh, hi Amanda."

"Hey, so I was thinking you and I should check out Hogsmeade some time because…ummm… that would be wicked and I would really like it I mean I don't want to push you or anything but it's been a really hard month for me and I could really use some company because Katie and Jenny have just been sooooo stuck up lately and there is _no way_ I am ever being friends with them again and…"

"Amanda, I'm late for Herbology." James was horrified to see her promptly burst into tears.

"I knew you hated me because everyone hates me ever since I dyed my hair because it just doesn't go with my skin tone but I've heard there are charms to change it back and apparently we learn that in human transfiguration but I dropped transfiguration this year because Professor McGonagall just weirds me out…"

"I don't hate you, Amanda, but I really have to go to Herbology."

"Oh that is so good to know that you like me I mean I thought you might like Lily but I never saw what was so great about her so I thought I must be wrong and I was I mean I was right oh whatever so I'll see you in the Entrance Hall okay Jamsie bye!" And she left. James stood dazed trying to figure out what had just happened before ducking into the greenhouse.

* * *

James seriously considered just going to Hogsmeade through the secret passageway as usual, but something told him Amanda would hunt him down, and would be all the more annoying because of it, so it was with immense trepidation that he headed to the Entrance Hall. Amanda pounced on him as soon as he stepped inside the hall, and maintained a vice-like grip on his arm all the way into Hogsmeade. Sirius, Remus, and Peter followed them down, flicking cereal at the back of his head. James lost track of the so-called conversation as soon as it started, but Amanda didn't seem too particular. He was going in auto-pilot when he suddenly realized which way she was steering him.

"Whoa, wait; we aren't going to Madam Puddifoot's are we?"

"Yeah have you ever been inside its really cute and they have some really good donuts..."

"I am not setting foot in Madam Puddifoot's. No way." He expected her to protest, but she just said, "Okay, Jamsie," and steered him around and straight into Lily Evans.

James felt his face burn, very much aware of how tightly Amanda was holding on to his arm and how close she was standing to him.

"Hey Lily we were just going to Madam Puddifoot's but James suggested the Three Broomsticks instead and I'm glad because they have butterbeer there but only tea here and were you on your way to Madam Puddifoot's because normally only couples go there not that you can't go there by yourself of course…"

"Actually," said Lily, talking over Amanda and staring directly at James, "I was on my way to the post office. I don't have an owl and it's my dad's birthday so I'm sending him something." She raised her eyebrows at James and stepped around him before Amanda seemed to have realized she had been talking. James wanted to evaporate, but knew he couldn't, so he did the next best thing.

"AMANDA!" he bellowed, and she stopped talking abruptly and gave him a vacant smile instead. "I don't know where you got this idea that we are going out, because I sure as hell didn't agree to that. And I never asked you to go to the Three Broomsticks either. Please don't think that I hate you, because I don't, but this really isn't going to work." He wrenched his arm out of her grasp, did his best to ignore her sudden wails, and stalked back up towards the castle. He caught sight of Sirius, Remus, and Peter, who were across the street doubled up with laughter and gave them a rude hand gesture as he passed. This was most decidedly _not _funny.

* * *

He was still fuming at dinner and merely ground his teeth when Sirius slapped him on the back and congratulated him. Amanda was sitting a few seats down and kept glancing over at him and sniffing dramatically. Lily too was glancing at him more than was normal, but she just looked thoughtful. James wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not.

Apparently it was because Lily sat down next to him in the common room later that night looking awkward.

"So I see you broke up."

"Oh, good lord, she's not saying that, is she?" asked James feeling panicked, but Lily sniggered.

"Not that I'm aware, although I wouldn't be surprised."

"We weren't actually going out, you know."

"Yeah, I know. Anyone with eyes could see you were really uncomfortable." She was silent for a while, then turned abruptly to him. "Do you think you could help me with that Transfiguration essay? I'm having trouble figuring out the difference between vanishing and disappearing."

James grinned. "Yeah, no problem."

* * *

**A/N-** Sorry it was so short- the next chapter is fairly long (and has a lot more Lily). It's all JKR's


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

James was leaving Charms one Friday when Lily pulled him aside looking nervous. She waited until the rest of the class had disappeared down the corridor before asking, "What're you doing for Easter?"

He had been expecting a more serious question. "Oh! Um, not much. Just going home I suppose. You?"

She was chewing nervously on a strand of hair in a way that James found incredibly endearing. "Well, see, that's the thing. My sister got her first real job, so my parents are throwing her a party, and all her friends and her new boyfriend will be there. Two are staying for a whole week. I know this sounds really stupid, but I don't think I can face that alone. I wouldn't be asking you, but Mary's parents are taking her to France, Susan would just make the whole thing worse, and Severus…." she broke off.

James had not even known Lily had a sister, and was a little surprised at her reaction to her sister's friends, but he wasn't about to pass up this opportunity, not now that Lily seemed to be softening towards him. "Of course. I'd love to."

She looked suddenly alarmed. "I mean, don't get the wrong idea, Potter. I just need moral support, and nothing more," but he held up his hand and she fell silent.

"Don't even worry about it."

She gave him a quick smile, mumbled her thanks, and ran off to her next class. James followed at a much jauntier pace.

* * *

James could not help feeling intensely curious as he got off the Hogwarts Express a few days later. He had never been inside a Muggle house before; never even had much of a conversation with a Muggle, and he was now facing a full week of it. He grinned at Lily, who was looking nervous again, waved off Sirius' catcalls, and followed her towards two people who were undoubtedly her parents. He shook hands with them, wondering what Lily was playing at: her family seemed perfectly nice.

He spent the car ride to the Evans' home politely answering their questions about how he liked school, what his parents did for a living, and what he wanted to do after Hogwarts. Lily stared out the window the entire time, and James glanced at her during lulls in the conversation. They pulled up in front of a square blue box of a house, and James saw a face pull away quickly from an upstairs window.

The Evans' home was a comfortable, upper-middle class house that seemed fairly similar to a wizard dwelling but for the television and the blender, the purpose of which James did not immediately register. Before he had a chance to get a good look, however, Lily was plucking at his elbow to show him the guest room. He plopped his stuff on the bed and turned to face Lily, who was standing in the doorway.

"Why so miserable? This place seems nice."

She sighed. "Come here." She grabbed his hand and pulled him two doors down the hall, where she knocked quietly and slowly opened the door. "Hi Petunia. I'm home."

"I can see that," came the harsh reply, and James saw Lily's back stiffen.

"I, um…I brought a friend. This is James." She opened the door wider and pulled James inside the room. He found himself in a room cleaner than any had a right to be, facing a blonde girl with a horse-ish face sitting at a desk. She looked him up and down and clenched her teeth.

"You go to the same school?"

"Yes, I go to Hogwarts." The girl's jaw clenched, if possible, even tighter. "Congratulations on the job." He held out his hand for her to shake.

"Get out."

James lowered his hand uncertainly and glanced at Lily, who grabbed his other hand and pulled him from the room.

"What was that about?" he asked as soon as they were out of earshot.

Lily shrugged. "We used to be really close, but as soon as I came back from Hogwarts first year she started ignoring me and lashing out. She's been like that ever since. All her friends follow her lead. I thought she was jealous of my magic at first, but I thought she would get over it."

Shaking his head, James knew now why she had wanted someone there. Lily was looking even more down than she had in the car, so he tried to get her to think of something else. "Want a game of Exploding Snap?" She nodded, and James fished the cards out of his bag.

They were halfway through their third game, and Lily was actually smiling by the time Petunia's guests started arriving. James thought it only polite to go down and greet them, but Lily grabbed his arm as he made to get up and shook her head, her eyes wide. They had just finished their sixth game when Mrs. Evans called them down to dinner.

Petunia was seated at the head of the table in the dining room surrounded by five giggling girls and a very large boy who reminded James forcefully of a pig. He wondered what it was with this girl and barnyard animals before mentally shaking himself. He spent dinner being thoroughly ignored by everyone except Mr. Evans, who seemed to have taken a liking to him, and started telling him about his job as a consultant. He seemed to run out of things to say before dessert, however, and James was forced to listen in on the conversation happening at the other end of the table.

"Yes, it should be perfect," Petunia was saying. "Vernon here had an internship with the same company, and he says they run things very efficiently. I fully expect to be promoted in a few months, although," she laughed airily, "once I start settling down with a family of course I wouldn't dream of keeping a career." She winked very obviously at Vernon.

"Well, of course. I can't stand it when all those oddballs and troublemakers insist that mothers should be able to work and raise their children. It simply isn't natural, and what isn't natural can't be right." Both Petunia and Vernon stared very pointedly at Lily and James at this remark from one of Petunia's friends.

"Yes," Petunia replied, still looking at Lily. "Yes, I quite agree."

James heard Lily's quiet sob and decided that now was a good moment to clear his throat. All Petunia's friends turned to look at him as if they had only just realized he was there. "I'm not so sure about that kind of logic. I mean, of course," he smiled at Petunia, who glared back, "of course, there are some behaviors that are unacceptable, but where would progress be without innovation? And where is innovation without going against the grain? I mean," he raised his voice slightly, "Thomas Edison was doing something bizarre when he was inventing the light bulb, but now it's only considered acceptable and right to have light bulbs in every home." James had never been happier that he paid attention in Muggle Studies. "Maybe raising children and having a career at the same time isn't right, but maybe it is, and I don't think you can discount that option just because it isn't 'natural.' Maybe 'unnatural' people are on to something." He glanced around to find Lily staring at him with her mouth open, and the new arguments that had just occurred to him died in his throat as solid silence fell. Petunia gave an aberrant laugh a few seconds later, and she and her friends resumed their talk. Lily excused herself from the table not long after, and James followed suit. Once they were upstairs she bade him goodnight even though it was only seven o' clock and disappeared into her room.

Several hours later, James was lying in bed reading when his door opened. Lily stood there in a bathrobe, and she and James stared at each other for a long moment.

"Thank you, James."

He felt the corner of his mouth twitch. "It was my pleasure. Good night."

"Good night."

* * *

**A/N-** It's all JKR's


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Lily became considerably warmer towards James and his friends after that, although it couldn't be called much more than a casual friendship. She no longer avoided sitting near them at mealtimes, she would occasionally join their "study groups" (although the only times they would study were when she was with them, keeping them in line), and James could say "hi" to her in the halls and receive more than just an icy stare in return. James considered it a major breakthrough when she actually laughed openly at one of Sirius' jokes.

There was one last Hogsmeade weekend of the year, and James was working up the courage to ask her to go with him. He had asked her out so many times (as Sirius could attest with painful accuracy), he wasn't sure why he was so nervous about this time, unless it was that this was the first time where there was a real possibility that she would say yes. Finally, his insides squirming like worms, he managed to get the words out. She looked at him critically.

"Just you and me?"

"Well… um, if you want, but…"

"I'll go with you only if we're not alone and I can bring Mary along."

James was so relieved she had said something other than "No way" that he agreed immediately without really knowing what he was agreeing to. It wasn't exactly the ideal date, but he was still quite excited for it.

* * *

It was two in the morning when James burst through the portrait hole, pulled off his Invisibility Cloak, ran up to the dormitories, and then ran back down again, this time clutching a large piece of parchment. He didn't even register the red-haired figure sitting by the fire finishing an essay.

Outside, back under the cloak, he held the map close to his eyes and scanned the grounds. There. At a point just beyond Hagrid's hut was a small dot called "Peter Pettigrew." He changed into a stag and ran to the forest edge, where two canines were waiting. He led the way to the appropriate spot, and the animals circled around the tree, looking up at the topmost branches. Once, the wolf started forward hungrily, but almost immediately sat back. They waited there for hours until, with some shuddering and moaning, the wolf returned to Remus. The stag and dog promptly resumed their human forms as well.

"Shit," said Sirius. "How the hell are we going to get him down?"

James tugged experimentally at the trees' lowest branches, and they broke off in his hand. "Well, climbing is out. Levitation charms, do you recon?"

Sirius nodded and he and James drew their wands; Remus' clothes and wand were still in the Shrieking Shack. "Peter!" called Sirius up the tree. "We're going to try and levitate you down, but we have to see you."

Suddenly, a plump boy came into view, clinging to the very top of the tree, looking alarmed as it swayed slightly. Sirius and James angled themselves on different sides of the tree and said in unison, "_wingardium leviosa._" The boy began to float, and was slowly and carefully brought down.

"Thanks," he said fervently as his feet touched earth.

"What happened?" asked Remus. "I was looking the other way and suddenly I heard Sirius barking up a storm, and all of a sudden Peter's in a tree."

"An owl got me," said Peter, showing them the talon marks in his side. "Looked like it wanted to eat me, so when it dropped me in its nest, I transformed and scared it off, but I knew I couldn't stay that way or Remus would go nuts, so I had to change back. The owl just kept on coming back, so I had to do those quick transformations every so often to keep it away."

Sirius was laughing, but Remus punched his arm. "It's not funny."

"I think it's hysterical," said James, barely concealing his own laughter. Even Peter cracked a smile as they headed back to the Shrieking Shack for Remus' clothes.

When the four boys entered the common room much later, now practically doubled up with laughter, the red-haired figure was still there.

* * *

When the day of the Hogsmeade trip came, James got up early and actually attempted to flatten his hair, something he had never tried before, but it was impossible. On second thought, he rumpled it up to be even messier than usual. He stood in front of the mirror experimenting with different levels of messiness until Sirius yelled at him that he needed the shower. Lily and Mary were both in the common room when they came down, and they joined in with the boys as they left through the portrait hole. James attempted a smile at Lily, and felt his heart lift as he received a quick one in return.

Sirius insisted on visiting Zonko's first since he wanted to try out their new line of fake wands, so the rest of the group followed him in. James shadowed Lily through the store, occasionally explaining to her what a joke item was used for. They visited the Three Broomsticks next and spent a good hour drinking butterbeer and talking. Mary had at first seemed uncomfortable at being dragged along by Lily, but the influence of the butterbeer seemed to be doing her good, and she was soon deep in conversation with Peter. Sirius and Remus got into an argument about Quidditch fouls, with Remus insisting that playing dirty ruined the integrity of the game, and Sirius insisting that playing dirty _was_ the game. James was quite pleased to find Lily giving some very insightful input.

There was only one uncomfortable moment in the whole trip. Lily had gone to the bathroom, and on her way back, she was pulled aside by Snape who must have been lurking in a corner. He appeared to be asking her something, and she shook her head and gestured in James' direction. Snape followed her gaze, and the look on his face was pure venom. James found himself fingering his wand in his pocket. _Cool it. Don't overreact._ Snape said one more thing to her, and then stomped out of the shop, slamming the door behind him. Lily's face had stiffened and looked as if she were about to cry, and it wasn't long after she sat down that she suggested heading back to the school. As they were walking up, she matched James' step and said quietly, "Thank you for not cursing him. You looked like you wanted to."

"So did you." She rolled her eyes. "And you're welcome."

* * *

There was the usual flurry of packing at the end of term, and James spent hours attempting to track down all his possessions to throw into his trunk, and then even more hours trying to fit it all in. He had finally managed to latch his trunk closed when he remembered that his toothbrush was still in the bathroom. Sirius was waiting in the common room calling for him to hurry up at periodic intervals. He hauled his trunk downstairs and heaved it onto the dolly Remus had procured before slapping his hand to his forehead.

"What's up?"

"Oh, I just left my wand in the dorm. Go on ahead, I'll catch up"

"Alright. See you at the train, Prongs"

The wand was right where he had left it on his bed. He snatched it up and ran down the stairs two at a time until hearing the thump of a trunk being dragged down behind him. Apparently he was not the only one running late. Lily emerged from the girl's dormitories looking harried with her hair in her face, pulling her trunk with one hand, and holding a piece of toast in the other.

"Hey, Lils. Need a hand?" He was already walking up to her.

"Oh, thanks James, but I just…oh Merlin." The trunk had burst open and Lily was nearly buried in a cascade of what had recently been neatly packed robes. She lost her balance and fell right into James, who caught her. He blinked in surprise. They had nearly knocked heads, and he was just as shocked as she looked to find their mouths smashed together. After several awkward seconds James carefully pushed Lily up so that she could find her balance, and they spent several more awkward seconds looking at anything but each other. They both chanced a glance at the same moment, and in the instant when their eyes met James had a sudden surge of a completely foreign emotion rise from his stomach to his throat. The impulse was too strong to ignore: he turned and ran down the stairs as fast as he could, bursting through the portrait hole, ignoring the Fat Lady's screech of surprise, and did not stop until his shaking legs forced him to take refuge in a bathroom on the third floor.

_Merlin's socks, did I just kiss Lily Evans? I'm not sure that counted as a kiss. But does _she _count it as one? She tasted like jam… probably from the toast. Wait, you idiot why are you thinking about that? Why did I run? James Potter running away from a challenge? Bloody hell, yes; I had to get out of there! Oh, shit, Sirius will kill me if he finds out. _It took five minutes, a glass of water, and a visit to one of the loos before he trusted himself to leave the bathroom. He arrived at Hogsmeade station just in time and found his friends in a compartment near the end of the train. Sirius immediately launched into his plans for a booby trap for Regulus' bed and seemed not to notice anything unusual about his friend, and as usual Peter was avidly listening to Sirius' plan, but Remus was looking at James with a strangely knowing look on his face. James must have looked panicked because Remus smiled slowly, gave James a tiny wink, and turned to listen to Sirius.

* * *

**A/N-** How's that for a first kiss? The Marauder episode is because I always wondered how Peter was able to survive for so long in a place teeming with rodent-hunters. It's all JKR's


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Make up your mind!"

James jumped. His mirror had just yelled at him- something it had not been reduced to doing since he had been going through a pyromaniac phase at age 10. He had been walking over to his desk, sitting down, picking up his quill, setting it down again, and getting up to do something else for the past hour and a half. He had been trying to decide if he wanted to write a letter to Lily or not. As friends, he couldn't see anything wrong with it, but he had never written her one before, and he was afraid he had left things on too awkward a note for his letters not to be looked at skeptically. He roared with frustration and flung himself into his desk chair, determined to do it this time. He couldn't spend life worrying what Lily Evans would think, and he knew he wanted to do this.

_Lily,_

_Hey. I hope your summer's going well so far. Mine's been fairly boring. Peter came to stay a few days ago and we went down to the lake and built a boat. I don't think it would have floated if we hadn't put _Impervious_ charms all over it, but it did and we had fun trying to push each other off (I got him all but once). _

_Anyways, I just wanted to write and say that I hope things are going okay with your sister and that you aren't pushed to hexing her into oblivion (I feel that way sometimes with Sirius). If you need to get away, dad said it'd be okay if you came over. _

_James_

It seemed very short and not all that interesting, but he couldn't think of anything else to say, so he stuffed it into an envelope and put it on his desk thinking he'd run it to the post office next time he went into town; he didn't know how her parents would react if their daughter received mail by owl. Thinking that at least he'd accomplished something, he ran downstairs to floo Sirius.

He sent the letter (he had to put a _confundus_ charm on the envelope since he didn't have any stamps), and made sure to put a return address since he knew she didn't have an owl, but two weeks passed and he received no reply. He supposed it hadn't really been interesting enough to reply to anyways, so he tried again with stamps, but this too went unanswered. He persisted however, and his letters morphed slowly into something more like journal entries- since he didn't know if she was even reading them, somehow writing seemed easier. "_We had mashed potatoes and peas for dinner, which you wouldn't think would be emotional, but it was because Dad's rubbish at making potatoes (How? They're the easiest things to cook ever), and Mum was great. I don't miss her most of the time, but it's the little things like that that really get me." …"I don't know if you get the Prophet, but they just reported that the Malfoys are officially endorsing Voldemort's platform. That's a blow to my dad, because the Malfoys have got a lot of political clout, and the opposition keeps losing support. I hate all this political waffle- I think Sirius may have been right when he said all this should be settled with an arm-wrestling match. I vote for Hagrid for our side." …"I saw a doe today and thought of you. Feel free to interpret that however you like."_ He didn't receive a single reply all summer.

* * *

Holding his Invisibility Cloak carefully under one arm, James sneaked downstairs, pinched some floo powder from the box on the mantle, and threw it in the grate. He climbed into the green fire, whispered, "The Lupin's," and with a whoosh he was gone. Sirius caught him as he stumbled at the other end, put a finger to his lips, and motioned him outside.

"What took you so long?" Sirius whispered.

"My dad went to bed late tonight. How long until the moon comes out?"

"About ten minutes."

Two dark shadows behind the Lupins' garden shed turned out to be Remus and Peter. The four boys nodded at each other and then three transformed. Wormtail climbed up Padfoot's fur onto his back and Prongs lowered himself low enough for Remus to climb on. They were off running then, clearing the back fence and heading towards the woods. The moon emerged from behind the trees and Prongs felt Moony writhing on his back, but he kept running. They had no particular plan for tonight except to explore the woods, which were just as interesting, but not as dangerous as the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts. They reached a clearing and Prongs let the now fully-transformed Moony off. They trotted briskly in a random direction. Padfoot had fun scaring squirrels and once, a raccoon.

Prongs had started wandering a little away from the group, following an interesting but mysterious smell, when he heard a sharp crack and felt his hind leg sear in pain. He looked up to see a Muggle man with a rifle pointed at him. James didn't know much about guns, but he knew that when you were looking down one's muzzle, that was bad. The stag lowered its antlers and charged, ignoring the pain in its leg. The Muggle looked startled, but cocked his gun and took aim, but a great black growling shadow bowled him over, and his shot went over the trees. A rat ran down the shadow's back and attempted to bite the man's ankle. The man was clearly terrified by this unusual animal activity, but all four looked up at the next sound: a howling scream. Immediately, the three animals ran off towards the sound, the stag limping heavily, and the man began sprinting in the opposite direction.

Moony came crashing through the undergrowth; he had smelled the human and was coming in for the attack. Padfoot barred his path, growling, and the two canines snapped at each other until Prongs caught up. At the sight of the injured stag, the wolf began shuddering in waves, as if having some sort of seizure. The three others slowly began pacing around the wolf in a circle. As if on cue, all four began moving back towards the clearing, where Prongs lay down and the other three sat around him. They did not move again until the moon set and Remus had returned.

With a gasp, James resumed his normal form. "Good Merlin, I didn't know it was hunting season!"

"I'm not so sure it is," said Sirius, examining the cut in James' leg. The bullet had gone clean through and the wound did not look messy, but it was clear that James would not be able to walk until they got a hold of some dittany.

"Man, did you see his face though?" laughed Peter. "He nearly wet himself! I don't fancy he'll hunt out of season again any time soon!"

The three boys lay on the ground laughing, looking up at the stars, which were beginning to fade with the coming of dawn.

Remus punched Sirius' arm playfully. "Hey, thanks for stopping me back there. I was in full wolf mode for a moment there."

"Hey, what're friends for?"

After a short silence, they got up, Sirius and Remus helping James, and walked back to the house. Remus poured some essence of dittany (stolen from the potions cabinet) on James' leg, and with a grin and a flash of green fire, he was gone.

* * *

There was a knock on the door and James ran to answer it. He opened it to find a very frustrated-looking Sirius standing on the welcome mat with his school trunk, a backpack, and his owl. James nodded and let his friend in.

After a quick conversation with Mr. Potter, the two boys retired to James' room where they sat making a makeshift bed.

"What did it?"

Sirius snorted. "Regulus, the idiot. He's not even out of school yet, and he's joined the Death Eaters."

James' jaw dropped. "What?"

"Yeah, he got recruited. Came home all puffed up and my parents practically threw him a party, they were so proud. I wasn't too thrilled, and they noticed and started asking me why I had no wizarding pride, and couldn't I see that Voldemort would make things better, and shouldn't I be proud of brave little Regulus taking on his rightful duty…blah, blah, blah. I told them I thought Voldemort was an asshole, and my mum denied me food or water for three days. Didn't happen, though, because I left right after that fight." He leaned back on his makeshift bed. "I hope you don't mind if I stay here a while… I'm not going back there, and I've got nowhere else to go."

"Yeah… no problem. Stay as long as you like," said James, still trying to drink in the news. He had known Sirius' family was much more into the whole "Pureblood Pride" thing than his own was, and that this had caused some problems for Sirius, but he had had no idea it was this serious. After a short pause he asked, "So, your family supports Voldemort?" Voldemort had been gaining power for a while, but he had recently made his intentions much more explicit, and he had lost a lot of former supporters. James thought Sirius' parents might have changed their stance, but apparently not.

"Yeah. They're saying he's just what the wizarding community needs right now: someone to get rid of the Muggle-borns and return wizards to power over the Muggles. I can't believe how close _I _came to buying into that junk, too."

"Well, you've changed a lot," said James, thinking of when he had first met Sirius his first day on the Hogwarts Express: a little Black prince. "But the Sorting Hat put you in Gryffindor, so it can't have just been the old virtuous Marauder influence- you never were much like your family. Not deep down."

"Thanks mate," said Sirius. "But I think the influence was mostly the other way around. I planned your first prank, remember?"

"Yeah, and I pushed you into yours," laughed James, remembering. "Poor Professor Johnson will never be the same again."

* * *

Sirius stayed for the rest of the summer, and Mr. Potter even went to Diagon Alley to buy him a mattress so that he could stay permanently. His family never came looking for him, but Sirius showed no sign of disappointment other than occasionally clenching his jaw for no apparent reason when he thought no one was looking. James had shared a dormitory with Sirius for six years, but there was something different about seeing his best friend eating breakfast at the kitchen table every morning as opposed to the Great Hall. They could stay up late talking without worrying about keeping Peter or Remus awake, and they never had to worry about being late for class when they raced their brooms. All in all, James was having the best summer he had had in a long time. The only things bothering him were the occasional disturbing rumors about Voldemort and the fact that Lily still wasn't writing.

James did get one piece of post near the end of August, but it was just the normal school letter. There was a surprise, however. At the end of his standard letter telling him to take the train from Platform 9 ¾ on September 1 was this message:

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been chosen as Head Boy. Attached is a list of your new responsibilities and privileges, the first of which will be to inform the new prefects of their duties on the Hogwarts Express. You should report to the conductor immediately upon arrival at the platform, along with the new Head Girl, Lily Evans._

* * *

**A/N-** It's all JKR's


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

James felt exceedingly wrong-footed, and he hated that- he hated feeling so vulnerable. Ever since he had returned from break, Lily was being perfectly friendly to him, even more so than she used to be, but she made no comment about his letters and seemed depressed about something. They had Head duties together several times a week, and he had thought maybe she would say something then when there were less people to listen in, but he was wrong. He opened his mouth to talk to her about it several times, but no sound came out. Late night on a patrol through the corridors didn't seem like the right time, somehow. He was determined to find a way, however, and he got his chance a week into term when Arithmancy was cancelled due to Professor Vector coming down with a mild case of dragon pox. The class had wandered over to the classroom only to find a note of cancellation on the door.

"Ooh, great, I'll have a nice break for once," smiled Lily. "Nothing to do."

She had already turned away when James caught her elbow. "Actually, Lily, if you've got nothing else to do could I talk with you? In private?" She gave him a questioning look, but nodded, and they headed into the empty Arithmancy classroom.

Now that she was here James didn't know quite what to say, so he just blurted out the first thing on his mind: "What is up with you lately?" She looked up in alarm and opened her mouth to respond, but he barreled recklessly on. "I mean, we kiss or whatever the heck that was before break, I spend half my summer writing you letters that you never reply to, and now you're here acting like nothing happened! I can't tell if you're leading me on, or if you're mad at me, or if you want to just be friends- whatever you want, I'll respect that, but I've got to know what it is that you want." Without realizing it, he had moved several steps closer to Lily, who was looking mortified.

"Oh, James, I'm so sorry! I didn't know you wanted… I didn't realize…" She took a deep breath and tried to compose herself. "I never got any letters. You see, my sister has been dealing with all the mail ever since my parents died in a car crash at the beginning of the summer." It was James' turn to look mortified, and they both sat down at desks as she continued in a quiet voice. "We'd been busy with arrangements for their funeral- contacting relatives and all that, and we had to come up with a system to keep things going, so we split up the chores. I did most of the cleaning, and Tuney took care of bills and business, including the mail. I don't know why she would keep them from me, but there's a lot about my sister I don't understand anymore." Bitterness flashed across her face, and James felt a surge of guilt.

"I'm so sorry… about your parents and…everything," but she waved away his apology.

"You didn't do anything wrong."

"Yeah, but I know what it's like to lose a parent. Is that why you've been depressed?"

"Yeah…well, wait. What?"

"You've been walking around like Christmas has been cancelled- is that because of your parents?"

"Oh! Well, partly, but it's been a few months now and I'm doing okay. No it's… well… Petunia and Vernon are getting married."

James gaped for a few seconds, imagining the horse in a white dress kissing the pig. It was a revolting image. "Wow. I'm sorry."

She laughed quietly. "You have no idea how hard it has been dealing with people congratulating me every time it comes up. I guess I thought that if she saw reason and dumped him there might be hope for us to… you know, be sisters again. But now she's gone, and that's three family members in as many months." James watched the progress of a tear traveling down her cheek and reached out to wipe it away before he knew what he was doing. She blinked at his touch but did not pull away. "I _have_ been thinking of that… that kiss, though," she mumbled, not meeting his eyes. "That was my first kiss, did you know that? Not quite as romantic as I had expected, especially coming from you, but… I wanted to say thank you. For catching me, I mean. And I know you weren't trying to push yourself on me, and I appreciate that. You've changed a lot." She sniffed in an adorably unladylike way and met his eyes. "What was in the letters?"

James could feel his face burning, not the least because of the anger of the idea that Petunia held sway over those thoughts rather than the girl for whom he had intended them. "Everything."

He couldn't bring himself to say more, and Lily seemed to read it in his face and nodded slowly. Sensing the conversation was over, James stood and began walking wearily towards the door.

"James!" Lily's cry was cracked and laced with tears. He turned to find her coming at him; she threw her arms around his neck and their lips found each other. James wasn't sure if she had kissed him or if he had kissed her, but he wasn't too worried about that at the moment, and he held her to him, stroking her hair, melting into the bliss of her; the Lilyness of her, and by the way she rested her head on his shoulder after they finally broke apart, he thought that for once, she might have been glad that he was James.

* * *

There was a small flurry from the students in the Great Hall at breakfast next morning when James walked in holding Lily's hand. It was no small secret that she had been spurning his advances for years, and the rumor was immediately put about that he had suckered her into it using a love potion. James just laughed at these rumors when he heard them. Many people, thankfully including Sirius, Remus, and Peter, seemed genuinely happy for them, but some were quite open about their dislike; it was also no small secret that both James and Lily had been the object of more than a few crushes.

One person seemed particularly miffed. Snape started glaring at James with even more venom than usual, but seemed hesitant to say anything while Lily was around, which was most of the time. However, about a week after they had started dating, after most of the gossip had dissipated, James walked out of a boys' bathroom just as Snape was walking in. The two boys stared at each other, James telling himself without much conviction that there was no need to pull out his wand…not yet.

"Enjoying yourself?" Snape finally hissed.

"Why, yes I am."

"Your new act isn't fooling anybody. We all know you're still just a horny prig, and that you two are shagging up in your…"

James didn't wait to hear any more. Wand forgotten, he slammed Snape into the wall and started pounding him as hard as he could. Snape's wand had been knocked out of his hand almost at once, and he didn't stand a chance against James' Quidditch-toughened body. Snape was out cold on the floor before James had even realized what he had done. Breathing heavily, he made to step over Snape's body out the door, but somehow he couldn't. Cursing, he pulled out his wand and levitated Snape, leading him up to the hospital wing.

Madam Pomphrey was alarmed to see the condition Snape was in, but she turned absolutely livid when James admitted he had caused it. Professor McGonagall was called in, and he was promptly given a week's worth of detentions and a long lecture, mostly about his duty to set an example as Head Boy. He accepted all his punishments mutely because he knew he deserved them, and that the worst was yet to come.

He was right. As soon as Lily entered the common room that night, he knew from her face that she had heard. She sat on the couch next to him, but put considerably more distance between them than she had been doing lately.

"I thought we were past this," she said quietly.

"Lily, I…" he began, but she cut him off.

"I don't want to know what he did to deserve it, and I don't want to know what he said about us. What I do want is a promise that it will never happen again."

He thought of Snape's taunting face, and of what it would cost him not to pound it or hex it. Then he thought of what it would cost if he did. There was no question, really. He nodded.

"Thank you. I'll see you in the morning." Without looking at him, she got up and disappeared up the stairs to the dormitories.

Peter approached him then somewhat tentatively, and James nodded wearily in greeting. "How're you doing, Wormy?"

"Oh, okay." They were silent for a while before Peter held out the parchment in his hand. "You've had an owl. Your dad died."

* * *

He cried easily this time. Mr. Potter had been caught in the crossfire of a battle that had broken out between some Aurors and a Death Eater who had been trying to penetrate Gringotts, along with two other innocent bystanders who were just trying to do their shopping. James cried for his dad and for the other two who had died. He cried for the Auror who had cast the fatal blow, who had already visited James and apologized. He cried for the war and its senselessness, but mostly he cried for himself, and he hated himself for it. James was now the 'head of the house,' although since he was the only one remaining of his immediate family, he was not entirely sure what that meant. He owned the Potter house in Godric's Hollow, and while James told himself that this was no big deal and he now wouldn't have to worry about finding a place of his own, the truth was that it scared him; he had never owned anything larger than his school trunk before.

Sirius, Remus, and Peter had all tried to distract him by playing Exploding Snap or telling crude jokes, and he appreciated the effort, but it was Lily who gave him the most comfort. When she heard, she gave him a long hug and he had been able to cry into her shoulder; he had refused to let the guys see him cry, but somehow with Lily it didn't matter. He knew she was still upset at him about Snape, but she didn't mention it again, and she didn't distance herself, for which he was immensely grateful.

There was a present sitting on his bed about 10 days after he received the news. James glanced around. Remus and Peter were both in the room, but neither gave any sign that they knew where the box had come from. James shrugged and opened it. His heart nearly stopped as a terrific boom shook the floor, and he was immediately engulfed in a shower of flying colored sparks; the box had contained a massive amount of Filibuster fireworks. Shock rooted him to the floor until a certain scent alerted him that his hair was on fire. He smothered it out with his pillow and lay shaking on his bed. It took him a few seconds to realize that he was shaking with laughter, and once he realized this, it became almost impossible to stop. His sides were aching by the time Sirius came in the room, leaned against the doorframe, crossed his arms and smirked.

"Nice to have you back, mate."

* * *

**A/N-** It's all JKR's


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

James had been dating Lily for three months, and just looking at her now brought a goofy smile to his face, for which Sirius lost no time in taking the mickey out of him. He was happier than he could ever remember feeling, but a nagging thought at the back of his mind kept resurfacing. He did his best to push it back: _It's a guy thing. It doesn't have to do with her,_ but he knew these excuses were feeble. Sooner or later she was going to find out about Remus and about his, Peter's, and Sirius' animagus transformations, and he much preferred telling her directly to having her catch them coming in from a monthly escapade. She already knew that they disappeared on some nights, but had let the matter drop when he refused to tell her where they went.

He held an impromptu conference with his roommates asking for their permission. Peter merely shrugged, but Remus and Sirius both looked at him shrewdly, and James found himself shrinking under their stares.

"I wouldn't be asking if I didn't think she was totally trustworthy. She won't blab, even if somewhere down the line we break it off."

Remus shook his head. "No, James, I trust Lily just fine. What I'm worried about is her reaction. If she reacts to me the way most people do, you might have just lost yourself a girlfriend, and I wouldn't want to do that to you."

James had not thought about that, but the idea of Lily shrieking and running from Remus just didn't fit with what he knew about her. "Well," he said slowly, "if she does that, I'll know she wasn't such a great catch after all, won't I?"

Remus raised his eyebrows, but now it was Sirius' turn to shake his head. "This is a Marauder thing. This is for us. I don't see why you want to tell her at all- it's not like she could come join us when we go out." James just bit his lip, and Sirius let out a sudden bark of laughter that made him jump. "Prongs, you have got it _bad_. All right, I say we tell her, but only after she has proved herself."

* * *

"Lily darling."

She looked at him suspiciously. "Since when have you called me 'darling'?"

"Uh, since now. Look, the guys and I have something to tell you, but I've been made to swear not to tell you until you've been deemed 'trustworthy.'"

She looked even more suspicious at that. "And what does being 'trustworthy' involve, exactly?"

"You've got to pull a prank of epic proportions tomorrow and not get caught."

* * *

James had total faith in his girlfriend, but as far as he knew, she had no pranking experience, and it had taken him five full years to perfect the craft. Besides his worry over what would happen if she tried and failed, he was not entirely sure she would try. She had looked supremely unconcerned at breakfast and had swept off to a first hour Transfiguration class without sparing him a glance. Because of his nerves, he deemed it prudent to duck into a bathroom before class, just in case. He was sitting in a stall, wondering how he would wrangle it for her if she got caught, when two bloodcurdling shrieks issued from the next stall.

"YEEEEAAAAACH!"

"BLOODY HELL!"

James finished his business and stuck his head out of the stall to find a boy he recognized as a Hufflepuff third-year backing away from the toilet, his pants still around his ankles. James managed not to laugh with great difficulty and asked what the problem was.

"There was someone _in_ the toilet! And she…she screamed at me!"

"What're you talking about? Nobody could fit in there."

"I swear! You heard that scream didn't you? It was coming from under my bum!"

James was not so adept at keeping in his laughter this time and wandered into Transfiguration thinking that he had wildly underestimated his girlfriend.

Hardly five minutes passed in the castle that day without someone screaming bloody murder inside a bathroom. Apparently, Peeves _and_ Moaning Myrtle had chosen this day to hide in the drains and would periodically screech at those sitting on the toilets.

Lily received a standing ovation when she was ushered into the seventh year boys' dormitory that night. She grinned modestly and sat on the end of James' bed.

"How'd you get them to do it?"

"Oh, well, Peeves was easy. I just mumbled to myself something about how much that would scare me when I walked past him yesterday, and Myrtle… well, we had a little girl talk. I just explained my predicament to her- turns out she had some boy problems when she was alive, so she was more than happy to help. Well… not _happy_, I suppose, but when is she ever, right?"

The boys shook with laughter, and Sirius gave her a bow.

"So do I pass?"

"Most definitely." Sirius' smile faltered, and he looked suddenly nervous. "Well, here I go," he said, and he transformed into the big black dog. Lily screamed, and James jumped to cover her mouth with his hand.

"It's okay, Lils."

Peter went next, and the dog and the rat both approached Lily cautiously. James gave Lily what he hoped was a comforting smile before transforming himself into a stag. She raised a shaking hand to her mouth and reached out the other to touch him. He nuzzled her hand gently, then with a nod to the others, all three changed back into humans.

"You're animagi?"

James nodded. "Took us about three years of study to figure out how to do it, and it's been a hell of a job keeping it secret. We're not registered, you see."

"Why?"

The boys all looked at Remus, who cleared his throat. "They did it for me, Lily. They did it so that they can keep me company when I transform. I'm…" he took a deep breath. "I'm a werewolf."

Understanding flashed across her face, and James' heart sank when he saw her jaw clench: _She's not going to run out is she?_ She stood up slowly, walked over to Remus, and wrapped her arms around him. He looked shocked, and awkwardly patted her back. When she stepped back she was smiling. "Thank you. I'm glad I know. I won't tell anyone." All five teenagers in the room smiled at one another and laughed at Sirius' assertion that now was the perfect time for a game of Gobstones.

They did indeed play Gobstones on the dormitory floor for about an hour. James spent the entire time with one arm wrapped around Lily's waist thinking that he did indeed have the best girlfriend in the world.

* * *

Lily approached James later that week with a firm look in her eye that James had come to associate with being told off. She had even resorted to giving him detention once, something that Sirius found extremely funny. He had just set off a bunch of dungbombs in the Charms corridor, so he braced himself for the rebuke. He was thrown off guard, therefore, by her next words.

"I want to go with you."

"What?" As far as he knew, he was not about to go anywhere.

"It's three days until the full moon. I want to go with you. I need to know what happens out there."

James' eyes had widened, and he shook his head violently. "Lily, you can't! He'll bite you! I won't let you risk that, or him, especially after what happened with Snape."

"That was… ooooh." She seemed to have understood something, but she looked no less firm. "James, you go with him all the time."

"But not as a human! That's the whole point!"

She grabbed his arm. "You can do whatever you like to keep me safe, and I won't try to do…whatever it is that you do, but I need to see. Please." The hard look in her eye had softened, and she now looked at him pleadingly.

James bit his lip. "It's just… Lily, we never really know what is going to happen on full moons, and this is a _werewolf_ we're dealing with, and… I don't think you know what you're asking."

Letting go of his arm, Lily straightened up. "I know exactly what I'm asking, James. I'm asking to know you. I'm asking you to let me see inside your little Marauder bubble and _know you._ Merlin help me," her voice was rising now, and the pair started to attract strange looks from those nearby. "You're the only person left in this world who understands the first thing about me, and I want… I _need_ to return the favor."

"Even if it kills you?"

She gave a small, wry smile. "You won't let it kill me."

She was right, he wouldn't. Despite the objections chasing each other through his head, the look in her eyes made the decision for him. Thinking that he would never forgive himself if something happened, he dropped his gaze and nodded.

It was planned carefully. Lily, James, Sirius, and Peter were to enter the tunnel before Remus was taken out to it by Madam Pomphrey. They would then construct a protective bubble for her made of shield charms, repellant charms, and (just in case) some planks of wood. She was taught some protective spells in case something in their own protections was faulty, and was given firm instructions never to leave her cage until given the say-so. James announced that she would be coming to the other boys the day before the full moon, and they looked at him curiously, but did not question him.

James was a bundle of nerves the next day and nearly bit the head off a first-year who ran into him in the corridor. Sunset came all too fast, and before he knew it, he was jogging across the front lawn with Sirius, Peter, and Lily, all under the Invisibility Cloak. Peter went down the hole first, followed by Sirius, then Lily, with James bringing up the rear.

Lily looked around in wonder at the broken down structure at the end of the tunnel. "This is the Shrieking Shack, isn't it?" James nodded and pulled her over to a corner of the room. Without another word, he and Sirius began casting spells around her, while Peter rummaged for scraps of wood. When they finished she looked as if she were in a caged fishbowl. The boys stood to one side, hands in their pockets and not saying anything. Remus came in about twenty minutes later and gave Lily a weak smile before stripping off his clothes, laying them neatly in a corner and lying down on the floor with his back to the other four. As if on cue, the boys all transformed into their animagus shapes at the same time, but did not move from their positions by the window.

Moonlight began slowly inching across the floor towards Remus as the moon rose. As soon as it touched his skin, Remus' back arched and he started writhing in pain. Brown fur began spreading down his back as his head started changing shape, and his feet grew claws. He was gasping and choking as if trying to cough up a fur ball, and then with awful suddenness he let out a screaming howl and Remus was gone.

The wolf stood on shaking limbs, but seemed to gain strength quickly, and was soon quite steady. It turned and caught sight of Lily. With a snarl, it hurled itself at her cage, and she jumped back, wand at the ready. The wolf hadn't even gotten halfway there, however, when it was charged down by a pair of antlers and prevented from circling around by a snarling dog. The wolf howled and growled, but the animals in the shack allowed it no leeway, and slowly it began to back down and shudder. The animals began circling the wolf at that point, and each time one passed by its face it shuddered again. After three full circles, the wolf looked back at Lily, but this time it was Remus' stare she met, not the wolf's.

James chanced a glance at her, and she met his gaze with tears in her eyes. She mouthed, "Thank you," and he nodded once before returning his attention to his three best friends.

* * *

**A/N-** This chapter was really hard to write for some reason, but I think it worked out okay. It's all JKR's


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

James could feel the tenseness in his date as they sat in the front pew of an old gothic cathedral watching Petunia and Vernon take their vows. He barely had a thought to spare for the couple, and he wouldn't have enjoyed it if he had. Instead he concentrated on the tenseness in Lily's shoulders, her flinch as the couple kissed, and the way she squeezed his fingers. She had not been asked to be a bridesmaid, and she had not wanted to come, but felt obligated as the sister of the bride, and he had felt obligated to come and provide moral support.

As an only child, he did not know what relationships between siblings were like, not the least what it would be like for that relationship to rupture, but he imagined himself and Sirius having a falling out, and the pain of that imaginary scenario was enough to make him determined to do everything he could to support Lily through this.

The reception was long and boring, with speeches from distant relations that James knew he would never meet again, and tedious small talk where he had to work hard to dodge awkward questions. He had avoided greeting Vernon or Petunia, and knew he was being rude, but they seemed quite content at this arrangement, so he wasn't too bothered.

Lily had gone to get drinks while James stood on the edge of the dance floor, watching the couples. Muggle weddings weren't really all that different from wizard weddings in customs, apparently, although he made a mental note not to let his own resemble this one in décor: the ludicrous flower arrangements made him nauseous. An elderly man James thought (judging by his waistline) had to be a relative of Vernon's sidled over to him, reeking of alcohol and swaying slightly.

"Which side you on?" he wheezed up at him. James assumed he was referring to whether he was acquainted with the bride or the groom.

"The bride's."

"Aaah. No disrespect, but there've been some funny rumors about some o' her people." James cocked an eyebrow but did not reply. "I can see you ain't blood, so you may not already know, but her sister was sent to an insane asylum at age eleven." James stiffened and had to exercise massive self control to keep himself from pulling his wand on the gossiping turd. _Too many Muggles watching, and Lily would kill you._ "Yeah, it was all hushed up, but she's completely loony- Tuney let us all know last week. She's been real good about keeping her under control, though. Tuney's got compassion like that."

James was relieved to see Lily winding her way back through the crowd holding drinks since she gave him an excuse to get away. He met her halfway, whispered, "Dance with me," and took her two drinks back to the old man, who was looking gob-smacked at the girl on his arm. "Here." He thrust the drinks at the man. "I've heard your side of the family likes to get drunk regularly and can't hold their liquor, so consider this a present from the heart."

Lily looked confused as he dragged her out onto the dance floor and began revolving slowly, holding her waist a little tighter than he would normally.

"What was that about?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Not here." They danced in silence, her hand playing with the hair at the nape of his neck, a sad little smile on her face. She was gorgeous, he thought. What with her alabaster skin, dark red hair falling over her shoulders, and her green halter-top dress that exactly matched her eyes, she looked like Christmas. "You doing okay?" he ventured. She shrugged.

"As well as can be expected."

"Look," he lowered his voice to a level only she could hear, "you want to get out of here? We made an appearance, let's just apparate out- we can go back to Godric's Hollow and spend the rest of Christmas break there."

She leaned her head against his shoulder and nodded.

They weaved their way through the masses, narrowly avoiding coming into contact with Petunia, and when they managed to find a measure of privacy behind a massive vase of flowers, they turned together on the spot into darkness.

They came out standing on the front porch of a small cottage that still managed to give off the air of great wealth. James unlocked the door with a tap of his wand and let them in. It had a musty, unused air to it, but it was comfortably furnished, and after lighting the lamps with another wave of his wand James led Lily over to the sofa.

They sat next to each other, not saying anything, but still holding hands. Slowly and half-nervously, Lily shifted her weight so that she was leaning against his chest. He let out a long breath, and some of the tension in both of their bodies seemed to dissipate. Her hair fell over her cheek, and he spent several long minutes marveling at how beautiful those strands were before tucking them behind her ear, the better to see her eyes. They were moist, but she was not crying, just breathing slowly.

"I love you, Lily." He was not sure whether he had spoken those words aloud or not, but her sudden rapid blinking suggested he had. He was afraid he had made her cry, but when she pushed herself up to look at him, her gaze was steady. She studied his face critically, and James felt sudden panic: was it too early? But she did not look angry or upset.

"I love you too, James."

She said it quietly but clearly, and James felt a quiet elation erupt in his core. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead gently. She resumed her position against his chest and he resumed fingering her hair. Morning found them in the same position, eyes closed, breathing evenly, with their fingers intertwined.

* * *

They spent the remaining days until Christmas in quiet companionship: not speaking much, and using low voices when they did. James knew they were both thinking about what they had said after the wedding, trying to figure out how to progress from there. For James it was not so much a question of "if?" but of "how far, how soon?" Their continual glances at each other, shy smiles, and quick brushes against each other filled James with a contentment he had never known existed.

James started teaching Lily how to ride a broom, which she had never done before, and Lily showed James some Muggle card tricks. He was fascinated at how she could continually fool him without using any magic; he even accused her of using her wand behind her back, but she just laughed and pointed at her wand sitting on the kitchen counter.

They picked out a tree from the local tree farm and spent an afternoon decorating it. When they made popcorn chains to put on the tree James couldn't resist flicking pieces at her ear when she wasn't expecting it. He got a shock when she suddenly turned and poured the entire bowl over his head.

James woke early on Christmas morning and tiptoed down the hall to his parents' former bedroom, where Lily had been staying. He opened the door quietly to find Lily still asleep. He kissed her ear and whispered into it, "Morning, Lils. Happy Christmas." She mumbled something indistinct, and he smiled softly. Then her eyes flew open, and she let out a bloodcurdling shriek that sounded all the louder after their days of quiet voices.

"JAMES POTTER, WHAT ARE DOING IN HERE? I'M ONLY HALF DRESSED! GET OUT!"

He practically sprinted towards the door, dodging the pillow she threw after him. He closed the door and leaned against it, surprised to find himself laughing. He was practically crying with mirth by the time she opened the door, now wearing an old T-shirt and pajama bottoms and glaring at him. He could hardly stand, so she took him by the elbow and marched him into the living room, but her mouth was twitching in a way that made James suspect she was trying hard not to smile. By the time he finished his hot chocolate he had found his composure, and was able to nod serenely at her suggestion that they get started on the presents. There were only two very small boxes under the tree. James opened his first, ripping through the paper like he had done since he was five, and found a penknife with a blade that would never dull and attachments to unlock any lock and untie any knot. He immediately started planning out how it could be used in pranks and Marauder exploits, and his thoughts must have shown on his face because Lily looked suddenly alarmed, so he softened his smile and passed over his gift for Lily to open.

Her reaction could not have been more perfect: she gasped and put a hand to her mouth, looking up at James with sparkling eyes. In the tiny box in her hand was a necklace with a pendant of a beautiful ruby-encrusted phoenix. "That's not all," James whispered and waved his wand over the box muttering "_morpheus" _and the pendant changed immediately into a white lily made of pearls. "You can change it back and forth if you want," he explained.

"James, this must have cost a fortune," she whispered, and he felt his face burn.

"Not really. I… I made it."

"You _made_…?"

"Well, you know how much I like transfiguration. I found the jewels in my mom's jewelry box, so I charmed and transfigured some metal around them. I couldn't decide if the phoenix or the flower suited you better, so I made both."

She fastened the necklace around her neck, and the pendant came to rest right between her collarbones. He leaned in to kiss her, and she met him halfway. James had fully intended it to be a quick "Happy Christmas" kiss, but he couldn't bring himself to pull away, and she seemed to be in the same mindset. He shifted his weight to get closer, lost his balance, and they both fell onto the floor, maintaining contact all the way. The kiss went beyond anything they had shared before, and seemed to wake in James a sort of primal desire he hadn't known he was capable of. There was something intensely beautiful about the way her hand traced its way down his spine; the curve of her neck; the feel of goose bumps on her skin. James' world had narrowed down to the square inches of skin that were touching hers, and thus he failed to notice the sudden green flames issuing from the fireplace. An appreciative whoop called him back to earth with the crashing force of a falling anvil, and James jerked his head up to find Sirius grinning manically at him over the back of the couch. Lily gave him an embarrassed smile and sat up, tucking her dislodged hair behind her ear as Remus and Peter also flooed into the living room.

James had forgotten that Sirius would be coming home that day, but excitement at seeing his friends after such a long break was overwhelmed with frustration at their timing. He grudgingly decided that there was nothing for it but to be gracious, however, and got up to fetch his cards for a game of Exploding Snap. Lily seemed more tolerant of the boys' antics than usual, and even cracked up laughing at Sirius' new spell to turn a person's hair into feathers. James ran his hand through his hair periodically just in case, and twice discovered neon green feathers instead.

Sirius managed to corner him when he went into the kitchen for more butterbeer, crossing his arms across his chest and smirking. "So."

"So what?" James thought he knew what.

"So you and Lily…"

"Yes, we've snogged. You knew that already."

"Stop beating around the bush. Have you or haven't you?"

James hesitated, torn between a desire to share everything with his best friend and a wish to keep his relationship with Lily between the two of them. "No," he finally admitted.

Sirius frowned at him, and James had his argument ready for when Sirius asked why not: he wanted to do it right, he didn't want to push her, and he wanted to be absolutely sure she was the one, although he had no doubts. He was shocked, therefore, to hear Sirius' next word: "Good." James stood gaping and Sirius laughed. "If you hadn't done right by her, as the older brother you never had, I might have had to pound you. She's a gem, and you need to treasure her like one."

James nodded. "I do."

"I know you do, and that's why I love you, mate." Sirius hugged him, snatched the butterbeer out of his hand, plucked a feather from James' forehead, and returned to the living room, putting the feather behind his ear as he went.

* * *

James felt as if a huge bubble of contentment had lodged itself in his chest as he sat on the Hogwarts Express heading back to school, his arm around Lily's shoulders, surrounded by his three best friends. Peter was showing off his Christmas presents: a new sweater, a book on Quidditch, and a Sneakoscope when the train lurched to a stop and James was nearly thrown to the floor. One glance out of the windows showed that they were nowhere near Hogwarts yet, and his confusion was reflected back at him in the faces of his friends. Sirius carefully got up and opened the compartment door to look out into the corridor, but almost immediately jerked back and whirled on James.

"You and Lily need to get under the Cloak _now!_"

James did not understand, but stood up and rummaged through his trunk for the Invisibility Cloak, Sirius motioning with his hands to hurry. He found it and whirled it over himself and Lily, who was looking terrified. After checking that they were completely hidden, Sirius sat back down and replaced his expression of fear with one of mild curiosity.

Several seconds later, no fewer than twenty cloaked and masked figured marched past the compartment door, one of them lingering outside their own. James recognized the uniform from the _Daily Prophet,_ and by the way Lily was squeezing his fingers, he knew she did as well. How did Death Eaters manage to board the Hogwarts Express, and why? His thoughts were cut short, however, when the sentinel outside their door stood aside for another figure, and James' blood ran cold as he looked up at the skull-like face and merciless red eyes of Lord Voldemort. He understood now why Sirius had ordered them under the Cloak: Lily, as a Muggle-born, would be the object of this man's wrath, and he, as her boyfriend, would be treated no better. His cold blood ran suddenly hot at the thought, and it was all he could do to keep himself from flinging off the cloak and cursing the monster for daring to threaten his girl.

Voldemort gave the three boys a piercing glare. "Black, Pettigrew, and Lupin." They each looked terrified in turn that he knew their names. "Two purebloods and a half blood." He sneered in Remus' direction, and without another word, passed on to the next compartment. Their sentinel remained, however, and several agonizing minutes passed in total silence until a ringing voice made them all jump.

"You have done well not to resist me. The Aurors will not be here to help, and the thirty-five owls that have been sent for them have been killed, as have three Mudbloods who refused me respect." James felt Lily shaking next to him, but he was at a loss of how to comfort her. "I leave you with a proposition. I was able to halt a moving locomotive without overstretching myself; you know my power. I will be back, and when I am, those of you who find it futile to fight me will be welcomed into my ranks, while those remaining will face the consequences. I do not wish to harm magical blood, and you do it far more harm by tolerating its contamination. Think about it." The voice stopped and was followed by the massive crack of multiple people apparating, including the Death Eater outside their door, and after a few minutes the train lurched into motion again.

The compartment was silent for the remainder of the journey, and by the end of it, James' fingers were numb after how tightly he and Lily had been holding hands.

* * *

As soon as the somber dinner had ended, James marched up to the head table, where Dumbledore was getting to his feet. "You're the head of the Order of the Phoenix, right?" he asked the headmaster without preamble. James had read about the organization in the newspaper, and knew that it existed with the sole purpose of resisting Voldemort. Dumbledore gave him an appraising look and nodded. "How do I join?"

* * *

**A/N-** This was actually one of the first chapters I wrote, and a lot of the rest at least partially sprang from this. And, yes, it is _that_ penknife. It's all JKR's


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Voldemort did indeed return to the Hogwarts Express at the end of term, but all he met was a battalion of aurors. The ensuing battle had nearly destroyed the train, but Voldemort escaped, yet again, without a trace. The students were sent to Platform 9 ¾ via portkey instead.

Graduation had been the night before. As heads, James and Lily were required to give a short speech, which he was surprised to find he enjoyed quite a lot. Sirius had set firecrackers under various "selected" students' seats that went off, right on cue, just as Dumbledore was saying how proud he was at how much they had all matured.

Dumbledore had refused to let James join the Order of the Phoenix while he was still at school, but he approached him during the chaos of hugs and high-fives and promises to keep in touch that followed the ceremony.

"Mr. Potter, would you care to join me in my office? Ms. Evans, Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, and Mr. Pettigrew are welcome as well, of course." He had explained to them the Order's philosophy: that all humans, magical or Muggle, innocent bystander or Death Eater, should be treated with respect, and so Order members never killed if they could help it. Joining the Order, he said, constituted a dangerous and possibly full-time commitment to protect the rights and lives of Muggle-Borns, and that that involved being in the most hazardous situation possible at the moment: that of opposing Voldemort. James had nodded and agreed to the terms, as did all of his friends, and the five of them had been sworn in as members.

"Please report to headquarters tomorrow so you can get situated."

"Where is headquarters?"

"We took the safest place we could find: here at Hogwarts."

* * *

Sirius moved out of James' house when he received a large amount of gold from his great uncle as a graduation present and he was able to afford his own small flat in London. Remus was having trouble finding an affordable place to live, so he moved in with Sirius. Peter was going to continue living at home, and Lily was renting a room in Hogsmeade.

James was levitating Sirius' trunk up some stairs to help him move in when Remus informed him of another change: he had a girlfriend. James nearly dropped the trunk.

"What!? Moony, when did this happen? Who is she?"

"Her name is Jessica. She would have been a seventh year this year, but she dropped out to take over the family business when her parents were killed by Death Eaters. I went into her shop in Diagon Alley at Christmas, and we've been writing letters ever since. She actually asked _me_ out."

James put down the trunk and gave his friend a massive hug. "That's brilliant, Moony! You could have given us a clue, though." He paused in the act of pulling away. _Was that a cloak that just vanished around that street corner?_ No…he decided he was imagining things.

Remus seemed not to have noticed James' sudden tenseness and just shrugged. "She's coming over to help me move later today, so you'll get to meet her."

"Does she know…?"

"Yeah, and it didn't phase her a bit." Remus was smiling widely, and James couldn't help doing the same.

Jessica was a short, quiet girl with long black hair. She didn't seem to know what to do with herself, and appeared intimidated by Sirius, who was decorating the walls with some very wild posters, but she was helpful and certainly got along well with Remus. James was happy for his friend, who had always been nervous about getting into relationships due to his "furry little problem." Sirius' flat was not far from Charing Cross Road, so she and Remus were in a perfect position for frequent visits.

The four of them had lunch together before James, Sirius, and Remus had to report to Order headquarters. Remus was going to walk Jessica home and then apparate, but James and Sirius opted for Sirius' motorbike; James was feeling at peace with the world, and the feeling of wind on his face seemed necessary to complete the picture.

It was heaven. He was sitting behind Sirius, so the worst of the blasting wind was blocked, and what with the feeling of the rumbling power of the bike and the scenery rushing past, James could almost imagine he was on his broomstick. _Wait a minute… broomsticks?_ Out of the corner of his eye he glimpsed the telltale swishing movement of someone having trouble controlling their broom. He glanced back and saw two men in black masks tailing them. Apparently he had _not_ been imagining things.

"Ahoy! We've got company!" he yelled in Sirius' ear.

"I'm on it," Sirius yelled back, and kicked the bike into a new and startlingly fast gear. The two men quickly fell behind, and James sniggered. _Riding Shooting Stars…the morons. No Quidditch players among Death Eaters, apparently. _His smile flickered slightly when he heard the whine of a police siren, but it quickly returned full force.

"Turn into that alley," he yelled at Sirius. "I've got an idea." Sirius immediately swerved down the blind alley, and brought the bike to a stop at the end.

"I think I see what you're thinking," he said, smirking as he dismounted.

The police car quickly caught up with them, and two policemen squeezed their way out in the narrow alley. The two boys endured about a minute of the standard lecture about speed limits before spotting the flying black figures coming up the alley. In unison, they levitated the police car up just in time for the two Death Eaters to smack into it and fall to the ground. Sirius revved up the bike's engine, James jumped on, and he and James flew straight over the two terrified policemen now cowering on the ground.

"Well that was fun," said Sirius pleasantly.

"I think I'm going to like this Order business," agreed James.

* * *

James' first official mission for the Order came a few weeks later, when the Order received an anonymous tip about the location of the Death Eater headquarters. Everyone who was able was to join in the raid. Mad-Eye Moody, paranoid as usual that this was a set-up, insisted on Disillusioning everybody before they left, and three members were assigned to do nothing but maintain shield charms around the group. They apparated together to a secluded field where the Death Eaters were supposedly congregating in a shack…except that there was no shack. James heard Sirius' disembodied voice behind him say, "Shit, it _was_ a trap," and then Moody's growl: "Quiet!" James cast a nonverbal _homenum revelio_ and sensed a large group of people standing together where his eyes saw only grass.

"They're Disillusioned as well," he whispered.

Slowly, the group crept forward, guiding themselves with continued _homenum revelio_ spells. They were nearly on top of them and could hear low voices, and still had received no challenge when James ran into something very solid. He managed not to cry out, but it was a close thing. He felt the object in front of him: it seemed to be a flat expanse of invisible wood. He followed the feel of the wall around a corner, then jumped back; he had just seen at least thirty Death Eaters plus Voldemort sitting at a table not ten feet away, but when he looked now there was nothing there. He felt for the corner of the wall and slowly walked around it. There they were, in plain view, and apparently unaware that they had visitors. James understood now: it was only the shack that had been Disillusioned, not its inhabitants, and he was looking through a doorway, able to see what was inside.

James felt behind him for one of his comrades and found one almost immediately; the sharp intake of breath told him it was Lily- it seemed she had been following him. As quietly as he could, he relayed his discovery to her, and they quickly sought out the others to let them know. With James in the lead, they approached the doorway in formation, and as one they fired stunners through the door.

They had about five direct hits, but the remaining Death Eaters were immediately on their feet, shield charms in place. There were several loud cracks, and about a fifth of the cloaked figures disappeared from the shack and reappeared surrounding the field. James tried to disapparate to challenge the man directly behind the group, but the air had solidified: the Death Eaters had already cast anti-apparition barriers over the field as soon as they themselves had apparated.

"Inside!" barked Moody's voice.

James felt Lily's hand on his back, keeping track of him as he ran inside. Voldemort was in the center of the shack, and James saw jets of light issuing from three separate places trying to bring him down, but the Dark Lord was equal to the task. The Death Eaters outside were firing spells in, apparently to discourage them from spreading out, but the shack's invisible walls were stopping most of the damage. One particularly strong spell hit the wall with a shower of sparks, and suddenly the walls were not invisible anymore. James felt simultaneously relieved and scared: he no longer had to worry about running into solid objects, unless it be his comrades, but he could no longer see where the Death Eaters in the field were.

In this moment of distraction James had let his shield charm drop a bit, and he felt something slam into his shoulder. He was knocked to the ground, but everything seemed to be working. Then he realized that he was visible again; he had been hit by the same spell that had just hit the shack. Several Death Eaters focused their attention on him now as the only visible target, but their spells bounced away before they came anywhere near him; someone was standing over him casting a shield charm. One Death Eater seemed particularly intent on getting past the shield, and as James scrambled to his feet he recognized the man's face: it was Severus Snape. He was snarling and throwing the most powerful hexes he could at the invisible shield, and as a bright white light issued from his wand, James heard the small "pop" that meant the shield charm had been broken.

Snape raised his wand for the attack, but Lily's voice rang out in front of James: "Severus, no!" and his eyes widened and he hesitated. He stepped deliberately to his left, and James thought he was trying to angle around Lily to get at him, until he saw with shock that Snape was no longer aiming at him at all, but was actually shielding Lily from Voldemort's line of fire.

Voldemort had been muttering under his breath for the past minute, and he suddenly screamed, "Now!" and with an earsplitting crack, all the Death Eaters vanished: Voldemort had been verbally undoing the anti-apparition barriers that had been set up to keep the Order in.

James stood tense in the sudden silence, expecting another attack, but there was nothing. Moody's hoarse whisper eventually came from his right: "Sound off."

"Black," "Lupin," "Stebbins," "Prewett," "Prewett," "Longbottom," "Evans," "Potter," "Bones."

"Right, we're missing three. Spread out and find them."

With the human-revealing spell, they had soon found their companions: two dead and one stunned. Everyone held on to either a compatriot or a stunned Death Eater, and with a crack they all apparated to the Ministry to put the Death Eaters into custody.

The Order was reasonably pleased at how the mission had gone. They mourned their losses, but had captured seven Death Eaters, which was more than they had ever accomplished in a single mission before. But they could now be fairly certain that Voldemort would move his headquarters somewhere else, and that he would be more careful about its protections, so they were back to square one in that respect.

The debate continued as to whether the tip-off had been a trap or not. The information had been accurate, and the Death Eaters had not seemed to have known they would be there, but they did seem unusually prepared strategically for an attack of that nature. James thought it sounded like someone was playing both sides against each other.

Sirius bought them all firewhiskey afterwards "for not being dead."

* * *

**A/N-** I hope the fight scene wasn't too confusing- it was really cool in my head, so I hope it translated into words halfway decently. I wrote this chapter before JKR's prequel came out, so I had to work the info in later, but it will have more of an impact than just that one scene… you just have to wait and see :-P It's all JKR's


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

As soon as James arrived home, he headed straight to his parents' old bedroom and rooted in their closet for a box he knew was at the back. When he finally located it, he spent a long time fingering through its contents slowly, and an even longer time murmuring incantations. It was a full three days later before he was satisfied: he had created a ring using gems from his mother's old jewelry and charming gold into graceful twists around it. The sudden confrontation with mortality had made him determined to make his life count while he could, and he knew exactly what that meant.

It took him several weeks, however, before he did anything more with the ring than carry it around in his pocket. It wasn't that he was unsure, or that he was worried about her response; he just needed to find the right moment, and romantic moments were somewhat scarce in the war.

They were leaving an Order meeting at Hogwarts when he took his chance. They had had some unusually good news: they had been able to lift the Imperuis Curse that had been put on a Ministry worker, and he was able to give them details about the Death Eaters' next move, so most Order members were in a fairly good mood. James was smiling to himself when he looked up and realized where he was: they were in the courtyard, which was surrounded by trees in full fall colors, and the ivy climbing the castle was starting to change colors as well. The lake was visible through the stone arches, and the sunset had turned the sky into a brilliant display of pinks, oranges, purples, and blues. It was quite possibly the most beautiful scene James had ever seen, or at least it was the most beautiful one he had stopped to appreciate. Lily had gone several paces ahead of him before realizing that he had stopped. She turned and looked at him curiously, and any hesitations James had were gone: she was utterly gorgeous in her old Gryffindor scarf and her cheeks rosy from the cold, and James knew that if this wasn't the perfect moment, nothing was.

"Lily," he said softly, walking up to her and taking her gloved hand, checking over her shoulder as he did so to make sure the other Order members had left the courtyard. They had. "Lily, you know I love you, don't you?"

She laughed. "James, it's kind of hard to miss."

Making sure he had the ring hidden in his hand, he pulled her into a hug and whispered into her ear, "Then will you marry me?" He stepped back to see her wearing the biggest smile he could remember.

"Absolutely."

Feeling joy explode in his stomach, he carefully took her hand, pulled off the glove, and slid on the ring. Lily examined it.

"Oh, James, it's beautiful."

"That's because it goes with you," he said before kissing her and sweeping her into a twirl. Their laughter echoed off the courtyard walls and James couldn't help hoping that it would never stop: that their laughter would forever sound as a marker of the happiest moment of his life.

"You know what we've got to do first thing, don't you?" he asked as soon as they had twirled themselves out. "Tell Sirius. He'll kill me if he isn't the first to know."

* * *

Five minutes later the pair had apparated outside Sirius' new flat, and their looks of contentment changed promptly to looks of horror. They drew their wands and ran towards the building where a sparkling green skull and snake hovered above. Bursting inside, they found Sirius and Remus kneeling over the body of a third person whose face had been so mutilated it couldn't be identified, but James recognized that dress: it was Jessica. He felt a burning sensation in his throat as he walked over and put a hand on Remus' back.

"What happened?"

Remus gulped, but seemed unable to say anything, still staring down at the body of his girlfriend, so it was Sirius who answered.

"No idea. We just got back from the meeting a few minutes ago, saw the Mark, and ran inside. Looks like it happened about an hour ago and that they… they _sectumsempra-d_ her face off." His voice broke and he looked away.

_Sectumsempra._ James knew that spell; knew who had perfected it. Apparently Snape's scruples about attacking women only went so far. He had to work hard to keep the fury out of his voice. "You think they tortured her for information?"

Sirius sighed. "Who knows? Could be they were looking for us and she just got in the way, or it could be just a random joy-killing. I'm going to redouble the protection on the place tomorrow just in case it's us they were after, but…" his voice trailed away.

Lily had pulled Remus up by the elbow and led him into the kitchen, where she was making him a cup of tea. James and Sirius stood talking in quiet voices by the door about what to do with the body and what protective spells they should use, but James knew he was just talking to keep himself doing something. In truth, he felt guilty. Death Eaters had followed him from this very house, and he could have taken them in… but he hadn't, and now someone was dead because of the information they had carried. He had been so full of joy five minutes ago… what had happened? He watched Lily and Remus out of the corner of his eye: she was now rubbing his back and talking to him in a low voice, and he was crying into his tea. James had never seen Remus cry before, even though he, of all his friends, had had most reason to.

James and Sirius joined Remus and Lily at the table and sat in awkward silence. "I'm sorry, mate," said James finally, feeling that nothing he had ever said had been so inadequate. Remus shook his head.

"I guess I should just be happy it wasn't me who did it. It was bound to happen eventually."

"Remus!" cried Lily. "Remus, no! You wouldn't have let that happen- you're too careful. This was Voldemort, and only Voldemort, don't you say anything different. You deserve love as much as the rest of the world."

Remus just buried his face in his hands and choked back a sob.

Sirius sighed and looked up at James. "What was it you wanted?"

James had to shake himself to realize what he was asking. "Oh…no, now isn't the time."

"Now's all we got, mate."

James looked up at Lily who nodded and said quietly, "James and I are engaged."

Remus jerked his head out of his hands and Sirius' jaw dropped. He pulled it up again abruptly and cracked a small smile. "It's bloody well about time." There were handshakes and hugs, smiles and tears all round, and Lily and James ended up staying quite late helping to clean up, planning Jessica's funeral, and assuring Remus that if there was anything he needed he need only ask. When they finally left, Remus hugged them both, whispering "Thank you" into James ear, but spending a bit longer whispering into Lily's. She gave him a questioning look, and he nodded vigorously. Grasping his hand, she murmured, "I would love to… for all of us."

James didn't want Lily to be alone after what had just happened, so they apparated to Godric's Hollow, and James let Lily into his parents' bedroom. He gave her a goodnight kiss at the door, but they stood facing each other for much longer.

"Quite the day," he said finally. She nodded solemnly. "What was it that Remus said to you?"

"He said he hoped we get married really soon. He said he needed to see that happen now more than ever."

James rocked a bit on his heels. "Ah." He held her gaze for what felt like an eternity, recognizing in her gaze the same struggle and doubts that he could feel trickling down his spine. They both turned at the same moment, murmured "goodnight" and walked away.

* * *

James was bouncing on the balls of his feet, standing in front of a full-length mirror when Sirius came in, fastening the top button of his dress robes.

"Nerves?" he asked with a smirk.

James shrugged. He wasn't sure if he was nervous or not, but he did know that if he didn't get some of his pent-up energy out, he wouldn't make it through the ceremony. Sirius walked up and clapped him on the shoulder.

"You've got the easy part. You just have to stand there and look handsome. And if you can't manage that, I think I can look handsome enough for the both of us."

James slugged his friend playfully in the shoulder. "I'll survive."

"You're a Marauder. Of course you will." Sirius slung an arm around James' shoulder and led him into the Great Hall.

The wedding was taking place at Hogwarts since it was reasonably certain that it could not be crashed by Death Eaters. They had reserved the Great Hall between lunch and dinner while the students would be at class, and the house elves had volunteered to make their wedding dinner and cake. It had been hastily planned and executed: all the flowers had been conjured and were sure to fade before the night was out, and the bridal party had opted to just go with clothes they already had as opposed to going out and buying new robes for the occasion. Given how fast it had all happened, James was very pleased with how things had turned out. The Great Hall was grand enough that decorations almost seemed futile, he had managed to dig up a nice set of dress robes, and most of the Order had been able to attend.

James was still bouncing by the time everyone had been seated, the lights had dimmed, and Dumbledore, who would be marrying them, nodded at him and took up his position at the front of the hall. He gulped and forced himself to stand still.

Lily entered through the back holding a bouquet of her namesake and wearing a simple white dress. When she got close enough, he saw that she was also wearing the pendant he had given her for Christmas. He tried to give her a smile and found himself already smiling. She reached the front, and they turned to face each other as Dumbledore began to speak.

He spoke about commitment, keeping together during trials, and the responsibilities that came with that, but mostly he spoke about love. He claimed that love had power where no magic could touch, or rather that all magic was just a pale imitation of true love. He said that love was hard and painful, but that the alternative was immeasurably worse. He said that love was the reason they were fighting this war, and the reason why all wars were fought, but that only with love could the wounds of war be healed. James had not expected to pay attention to the speech; he thought his focus would be on Lily. But while his gaze never left her bright green eyes, he found himself drinking in Dumbledore's words and praying that he would be able to live up to them.

"James Daniel, do you take this woman to be your wife?"

"I do."

"Lily Anne, do you take this man to be your husband?"

"I do."

"Then I declare you bonded for life."

* * *

James opened the door to his house in Godric's Hollow and stood back to let Lily enter first. He took her hand and led her towards the stairs, but as they passed the living room she paused.

"I thought it was going to happen there," she whispered, pointing towards the floor near the couch. James knew what she meant.

"Did you want it to?"

She bit her lip, thinking. "I'm not sure. I mean, I know I wanted it at the time, but stepping back from it all, I'm glad we waited. It just makes this all the more special." She smiled radiantly at him, then ran at the stairs, practically dragging James up with her.

* * *

The first thing James saw when he woke up the next morning was Lily's eyes staring into his. He tucked her hair behind her ear. "I've been waiting half my life for this."

"For what?"

"For you."

* * *

**A/N-** It's all JKR's.

Just in case you're wondering, I did _not_ choose James' middle name because of Daniel Radcliffe; Daniel is my dad's middle name. I _did_, however, intend the proposal to be the scene of that photo from the PoA/OotP movies where James and Lily are twirling in the leaves.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

James, Lily, and Peter were all at headquarters looking over some maps when Mad-Eye Moody stumped in, looking bad-tempered as usual.

"Potter! Got an assignment for you."

James looked up. He had been on missions before, but he had never been singled out for one. "Yeah? What's up?"

"Some aurors found a Death Eater trying to Imperiuse Amelia Bones."

"So…what do they need me for?"

Mad-Eye rolled his normal eye in a direction opposite his bright blue one. "Come on, boy…Amelia Bones. What they got handcuffed up there isn't so much a Death Eater as a sea urchin. She cursed the smithereens out of him. They need you to change him back so he can be questioned. They said, 'If anyone knows how to reverse bizarre magic, it's James Potter.'"

James had to admit they had a point. He looked at Lily. "Want to come?"

"Oh, yes. I've got to see this."

* * *

_Well,_ thought James, _he was right. _He was standing in front of a pulsating purple blob with no distinguishable head and a number of tentacles shoved into black robes and a Death Eater mask. He wasn't entirely sure where to start, but he figured he had better ask Amelia what exactly she had cursed him with. He didn't know where Amelia's office was, so he was wandering around, wondering if he should ask somebody, when he heard loud noises coming from where he had just come. He ran back almost straight into a jet of blue light. He managed to dodge it and dropped to the floor, looking for Lily. She was crouched behind a desk firing stunners at the three Death Eaters who had just emerged from the lift. He crawled over to her and joined her in firing spells, shouting over the noise, "Is it a rescue attempt?"

She shook her head. "Assassination." It was only then that James realized that two of the Death Eaters were keeping the Ministry workers and aurors at bay while the third was trying to kill the purple blob. It was only repeated shield charms cast by the aurors and the Death Eaters' bad firing angle that kept it alive.

There were two loud bellows, and two red-haired men charged in from opposite sides of the corridor, attacking the Death Eaters from the side. One of them managed to stun the man on the left, but with a swipe of his wand, the center Death Eater killed his unconscious comrade, then whirled on the redhead who had stunned him, and killed him almost as easily. The other redhead was now dueling with the Death Eater who had been trying to kill the blob, and the aurors were moving in. The central cloaked man grabbed his companion and disappeared into the lift just as the remaining redhead dropped to his knees, bleeding profusely.

Mingled cries of "Block the exits!" "Get some healers in here now!" and "What the bloody hell…?" replaced the cacophony of the battle. James let out a long breath and pulled Lily into a hug. She was bleeding a little on her arm, but other than that seemed unhurt. Slowly, they got to their feet to survey the damage. The blob had definitely been killed- apparently it had been hit with a reductor curse and was now sprayed over several desks. Two aurors had been killed, and four more had been injured but seemed to be in no immediate danger. James walked over to the two redheads and felt his stomach contract: it was Gideon and Fabian Prewett. They had both been Order members who worked here in the Ministry. James had not known them well, but in their brief encounters at Order meetings they had both been very nice to him. Fabian was still alive, but it looked like he had been hit with some kind of cutting spell that the healers were having difficulty patching up. Even as he watched, Fabian's eyes closed and he lay still. Feeling like he couldn't stay there any longer, James grabbed Lily, and they immediately left to apparate back to headquarters.

* * *

"He must have known something important, and they were afraid that if we figured out how to make him right again, we could give him Veritaserum and make him tell. That's probably why they killed their own man once he was down: couldn't be bothered carrying him out and didn't want him questioned."

The Order was having a quick conference. The Death Eaters had not been stopped, and they needed to figure out where they had gone wrong and where to go from here.

James ran a hand through his hair. "What I don't understand is how they knew we had a Death Eater in the first place. I only got there about five minutes after he was caught- they can't have been missing him too badly. And there's no way he could have sent any sort of help message in that state. It looks to me…" He hesitated. "It looks to me like we have someone passing information either from inside the Order or the Ministry."

* * *

James refused to let Lily do her shopping alone, what with the constant disappearances and her being a Muggle-born. She did not like this arrangement, insisting that she knew how to duel just as well as he did, but he said there was safety in numbers, so one January morning found him tapping the brick in the back of the Leaky Cauldron with a Lily who was hopping on the spot to keep warm. Diagon Alley was quiet and tense, and people were continually glancing over their shoulders. James wished they wouldn't. He was nervous enough already without having to witness everyone else's paranoia.

They entered Gringotts first. There was only one other customer inside: a stout woman surrounded by three rowdy boys who she was trying and failing to keep close together. She was holding a small child and what looked like the eldest boy was holding another. All of them had flaming red hair. James didn't spare her much of a thought, but Lily paused, looking thoughtful, and approached her.

"Excuse me, ma'am? Are you Molly?" James had a sudden burst of understanding.

The woman looked surprised. "Yes, I'm Molly Weasley. Have we met?"

"No, I don't think so. I knew your brothers, though- Gideon and Fabian. They worked with us in the Order."

Molly's expression had stiffened, but she nodded.

"I'm so sorry. We were there. I just wanted to let you know that if it hadn't been for your brothers, we both would probably have died."

A tear was traveling down Molly's cheek, but her hands were too full to do anything about it. Lily took a tentative step forward and gave her a small hug.

"Thank you," said both women at the same time, then gave each other the same shy smile.

"You have beautiful children," said Lily.

"We think so. So much so, we've got another on the way."

James was thinking that all that this woman needed was another child, when he noticed Molly and his wife sharing the same smile again…a smile with just a little bit too much understanding to it.

His eyes widened, and after saying a quick "It was lovely to meet you" he pulled Lily out without visiting their vault.

"Did you just…? I mean, are we…? Are you…?" He pointed at her stomach, and she nodded, a huge smile on her face. "Great Merlin's earwax!" yelled James, practically pulling his hair out, then gathered her into a bone-crushing hug. She then dragged him down the steps and into Madam Malkin's to begin picking out baby clothes.

* * *

**A/N-** I enjoyed writing this chapter a lot. :-) Who knew that Harry and Ron's first meeting was prenatal? It's all JKR's


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N-** Well, this is it! Thanks to all who made it this far! It was a lot of fun to write this story.:-) The last paragraph was almost the first thing that I wrote in this story, and I am exceptionally proud of it, so I really, really hope you like it.

In case you're wondering about the timing of when the Potters go into hiding, I don't think canon is terribly consistent on this point, so I did it the way that made the most sense to me.

One line of Lily's is from _Pride and Prejudice_ by Jane Austen Ch. 60, and one line of James' is taken from the movie Galaxy Quest. You should be able to figure out which ones.

It's all JKR's, and she is an absolute genius.

* * *

**Chapter 15**

James woke up with his nose pressed into the nape of Lily's neck and his arm circled around her overlarge belly. He breathed quietly for a moment, savoring the early morning freshness of the light outside the window. Very carefully, so as to not wake Lily, he got up and fished around on the floor for his shoes. Five minutes later, he emerged on the front porch in some old work clothes and covered in the Invisibility Cloak. After some preliminary stretches, he set off jogging down the street. This had been his routine for the last five months; ever since Dumbledore had told them to go into hiding. Going on regular runs was the only way James kept himself from going spare at being stuck in one spot for so long. Lily seemed content just to walk around the backyard a few times, and he had no idea how she did it so easily, but he was glad; he did not want her out of the house. Normally, he just jogged around town, but today he wanted to give himself some time to think, so he set off towards the woods beyond the town for a longer but quieter run.

Lily had been four months along, and they had just returned from the healers where they had discovered that their baby was to be a boy, when they found Dumbledore waiting for them at home. He didn't give many details, but he had said that one of his spies had gained intelligence that Voldemort intended to target their child once it was born, or perhaps even before, and that this would not be just another random killing: he would not rest until their son was dead. James and Lily had gripped each other's hands very tightly at this point, and James remembered thinking _over my dead body_, but what he said aloud was "What do we do?" Dumbledore had suggested the Fidelius Charm, along with basic home security such as intruder alarms and stealth detectors. Nobody would be able to find or have knowledge of their house, so long as their secret keeper refused to tell, but they would have to stay inside in order to remain protected.

They had agreed on this plan and asked Sirius to be their secret keeper, but he said no. He was the obvious choice, he argued, and if Voldemort figured out that they were using the Fidelius Charm, they would be sure to go after him with Veritaserum or the Imperius Curse. He suggested using Peter instead, since he was one of their next best friends, but not in quite so obvious a way. James slowed to a walk as he remembered these details. He was not quite sure he agreed with the logic of the plan, but Sirius had insisted, and he could find no actual flaw. The charm had been performed, and the Potters had not been seen in public ever since.

James was worried, though. He and Lily had been reassigned to working on plans and strategies for the Order since this required no mobility, but the Order had taken a blow because of it. There was a breach in communication between Godric's Hollow and Order headquarters, and sometimes their plans suffered for lack of information. And if things were really not going well for the Order, it seemed unlikely that Voldemort would be brought down any time soon, and where did that leave him and Lily? She was due any day now, and he was not fond of the idea of raising his son in what was essentially captivity.

He looked up from his thoughts and was startled to find himself much further into the woods than he had planned on going. He had better get back or Lily would worry.

He arrived home feeling satisfyingly limber and had just received a brain wave for how to perfect their current strategy, when he heard a sound that made his heart stop: Lily screaming. He drew his wand and burst into the house. Her screams were coming from their bedroom and he hurtled upstairs. At first he was confused- she was indeed in the bedroom, but there was nothing attacking her, and yet she was still screaming at the top of her lungs. Then he caught her words.

"JAMES POTTER YOU ARSE, YOU'VE BEEN GONE FOR HOURS! HE'S COMING _NOW!"_

James felt the blood drain from his face, but he ran forward, rolling up his sleeves as he did so, and nearly tripping when he caught sight of the top of a small head. He had read up on this, of course, once he had realized that they wouldn't be able to see a healer, but he still felt woefully inadequate. He tried to say something comforting, but his words were drowned by Lily shrieking swear words that he had never heard before. She pushed and screamed for what seemed like an eternity, and James kept up a constant stream of soothing words, more for himself than anything… and then it was over. With shaking arms, James cut and tied the umbilical cord and held up his son for the first time. He was tiny, much tinier than James had expected, and his wrinkled red face was covered in slime. James wiped him down with a towel and smiled as his much higher pitched screams replaced those of his mother. In a daze, he walked over to Lily's side, and it was all he could do to keep from laughing when he heard her murmur, "Oh, _Merlin,_ that hurt."

She heard his snort, however, and turned to look at him. When she saw what James was holding, her sweaty face broke into a smile, and she held out her arms. James transferred the baby carefully and leaned in to kiss her forehead just as she did the same to her son.

"Hi," she breathed.

* * *

James knew this wasn't quite how it was supposed to be done, but he wanted to make his son's arrival in the world official. Not that he thought birth wasn't enough, but that was private, and even though what they were doing only involved three people, it still felt more public in a way. That is why, eight days after Lily gave birth, she, James, and Sirius were to be found standing over the kitchen sink giving his son his Christening.

Sirius had almost broken down into tears when they had asked him to be godfather, and James' ribs were still sore from the bear hug Sirius had given him. He was already cooing over the baby as much as either parent, and James was glad because he could think of no better person; Sirius had always been there for him, he could be trusted to always be there for his son.

The child's eyes were wide and curious as Lily held him over the sink. James had filled a Tupperware with water earlier, and he tested it now with his finger to make sure it was at an appropriate temperature. Slowly, he poured it over his son's head; the tiny mouth opened slightly at the touch of water but did not make a noise. Once the Tupperware was empty, James patted the boy's head dry with a towel.

"May God protect you, Harry James Potter."

* * *

Over a year had passed, but not much had changed. The Potters were still in hiding, the war was still going badly, but Voldemort thankfully seemed to have been held at bay by their Fidelius Charm. It was now common knowledge that he was looking for them, but they were careful, and he seemed to have no clue.

They had allowed several more people inside the Fidelius protection, so they were now visited fairly often, Sirius and Remus coming the most often, but Peter and Dumbledore also making appearances every once and a while. They had also let in one of their neighbors, Bathilda Bagshot, who brought them homemade cookies, and told stories about Dumbledore, whom she had known growing up. James had been left in stitches at her telling them about the time he had trampled her roses when chasing a runaway goat and tried to repair the damage with his wand, but ended up blowing up the entire garden.

Harry was growing quickly. He had soon developed a tuft of unruly black hair, and his eyes slowly turned the same shade of green as his mother's. James had been embarrassed the first time Lily had caught him sneaking out of bed just to stare at Harry sleeping, but this rapidly became a regular occurrence for both parents. He was soon crawling, and James and Lily had to be careful to keep their wands out of his reach. Every evening, Lily would carry him into the backyard or the garden and tell him the names of the flowers or the birds and sing him Muggle lullabies. James loved to keep Harry fascinated by magic; he would shoot sparks all around the nursery or conjure bright toys from midair, and invariably, Harry would laugh.

James remembered Harry's first snowfall. It had been late December, and as usual Lily had taken him out in the yard before putting him down to sleep. He had been bundled up with a knitted cap covering his ears from the biting wind, and Lily was about to bring him in early in case he caught cold when the first flakes started to fall. Harry had clapped and giggled, and Lily had paused with her face uplifted, letting the white flakes surround her. James had been watching from the window. She was wearing green again and looked more like Christmas than ever. He threw on his own jacket and went out to them, kissed them both, and danced with them through the snow.

He and Lily had been replaced as strategists with someone with easier access to headquarters, and while James felt bad about their lack of usefulness, he couldn't help but be glad that he was no longer plagued by thoughts of how to most efficiently attack people. There were moments, sometimes long ones, when he longed to be able to go out and do something more than just jog, but he felt comfortable at home, and the war he knew was raging felt as distant as the roar of the sea to his little family haven.

But he could still hear it roar. Sirius came in regularly with reports of Order members who had been killed or injured and the mounting count of Muggle-borns who had been slaughtered. Once, Remus stumbled through their door with his arm bleeding badly, talking of an explosion. Lily was often reduced to crying in her room, and James knew that she, like him, felt guilty at their lack of usefulness. At these times, James' mind often went to Jessica: her mangled body on the floor, and his unresolved guilt over that incident. He had hardly known her, and yet she haunted him. Or, rather, the idea of her haunted him: the idea of joy turning to sorrow in an instant because of one careless mistake.

* * *

One night in late October, James climbed into bed next to Lily, who was reading a book by a Muggle author called _Pride and Prejudice_. She seemed really engrossed in it, but when she had described it to him, he had thought it sounded unbearably dull. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her neck.

"You done good, girl."

"James what _are _you talking about?" she asked without looking up from her book.

"That was a good egg. I suppose my sperm had something to do with it, but mostly I think it was your egg."

She laughed and whacked him softly on the nose with her book. "You can be so unromantic at times, you know that?" He smiled and resumed kissing her neck, pulling the book out of her hands as he did so.

"I can fix that, love."

She moaned softly and turned to him as he transferred his mouth from her neck to her lips and his hands traveled over her hip. But she wasn't giving in quite that easily.

"James," she whispered throatily, then louder when he did not respond. "James!" He pulled back and raised his eyebrows. "My good qualities are under your protection, and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible; and, in return, it belongs to me to find occasions for teasing and quarrelling with you as often as may be."

James blinked. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he confessed baldly. Lily giggled at the sight of him gawking, but he could think of no response except to kiss her soundly, and this time she did not resist.

It was at that moment, when they were making love once more under the sheets, that he realized just how much he loved her. He had been infatuated with her since he was 13, he had liked her at 14, and he had claimed her at 17. He had loved her ever since, and known it, but it was here and now that he knew beyond thought or reason that he would do anything for her and wanted nothing more than to grow old with her, raising Harry and any others that might come along.

She fell asleep first with her head over his heart, but he stayed awake much longer, stroking her hair and memorizing her features.

* * *

The next day was Halloween. Lily carved a pumpkin with Harry, or, more accurately, Lily carved and Harry played with the goop inside. James watched them, still marveling at the perfection of the two of them. Lily caught him staring and cocked an eyebrow; he walked over and kissed her deeply, then whispered, "You're beautiful, that's all." She tugged him closer by grabbing his shirt and kissed him back.

"You're not so bad yourself."

They had a quick visit from Sirius in the afternoon, who amused Harry immensely by changing rapidly from a human to a dog and back again. He and James shared a butterbeer on the back porch.

"You guys holding up okay?" Sirius asked, glancing at James out of the corner of his eye. James smiled lazily in response, and Sirius barked his laughter. "Good. Things are going as usual with the Order. Frank Longbottom just got out of Saint Mungo's and Podmore's moving his family out of Britain just to be safe." James nodded, but his smile had gone as he was once again filled with discomfort at what he _wasn't_ doing. Sirius seemed to read this on his face and patted his friend's knee. "It's okay. You'll be doing the world a bigger favor by raising that kid in there than by doing heroics. You're a good guy James." James gave a one-shouldered shrug while digging in his pocket for something.

"Here." He held out for Sirius to take the pocket knife that Lily had once given him for Christmas. "You'll make better use of this than I will."

"I can't take that, mate," Sirius replied, furrowing his eyebrows. He didn't say it, but James knew Sirius was aware of where it had come from and how much that day had meant to James.

He shook his head. "No, take it. It'll mean more to me if it's put to work bringing down Death Eaters than it does sitting in my pocket." They were interrupted by Lily who had come to show off her finished pumpkin. In its side was carved a perfect silhouette of a phoenix.

* * *

After Sirius left, the family ate dinner and James put Harry into his pajamas and carried him down to the couch. He spent several minutes blowing colored smoke out of his wand for Harry's enjoyment while Lily finished up with the dishes. When she was done she came in and smiled at the pair of them; Harry was rolling around on the floor giggling and James wasn't doing much better.

"I think our little Halloween monster is ready for bed, don't you?"

James knew what that tone of voice meant and conceded defeat, scooping up Harry and handing him off. "Goodnight, buddy. Dream of Quaffles," he whispered, ruffling his son's hair.

"Oh, great, indoctrinating my son, are you? You never stop," she laughed, leaving the room.

"Never give up! Never surrender!" he called after her, and stretched, throwing his wand down on the couch. _How did I get so tired?_ he mused, yawning, but at that moment he heard something which woke him up completely.

The intruder alarm went off.

His response was immediate and almost automatic. By the time the front door burst open with a flash he was already charging into the hall, shouting words to Lily of which he was not consciously aware. His wand lay forgotten on the couch as one thought took control of his mind: _Not my family, you bastard!_ The momentum of his charge was such that when the green flash caught him in the chest, his body slid several feet across the floor towards the feet of the cloaked figure in the doorway. The Dark Lord laughed as he stepped over the body of James Potter and headed towards the sounds of Lily's screams.

* * *

Exactly one minute, thirty-seven seconds later, an explosion blew apart the upstairs corner nursery walls of a house that its neighbors had only just remembered existed. Inside the rubble could be found some broken furniture, the body of a red-haired woman spread-eagle on the floor, a screaming child with blood pouring from his forehead, a wand of yew, and a pile of black robes. But for the rat that scurried over the ruins, there was nothing else there at all.


End file.
